
Glass JELi4J_ 






THE 



BATTLE OF HARLEM HEIGHTS 



SEPTEMBER 16, 1776 



READ BEFORE THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



FEBRUARY 5, 1878 



WITH A PREFACE AND NOTES 



ERASTUS C. BENEDICT 



PUBLISHED BY 

A. S. BARNES & COMPANY 

NEW YORK 



5 l Id 



THE 

Battle of Harlem Heights 7*7 

SEPTEMBER 16, 1776 

READ BEFORE THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
FEBRUARY 5, 1878 



WITH A PREFACE AND NOTES 



ERASTUS C. BENEDICT 



A. S. BARNES & CO., 

Ill WILLIAM ST. 

NEW YORK. 



1 

i 







B.v Transfer 



PREFACE. 



This little monograph came in this wise. My grandfather, 
Rev. Abner Benedict, was a chaplain in the army at the bat- 
tles of Long Island, Harlem Heights and White Plains. In 
the traditions of the family, and in biographical and historical 
literature, the battle of September 10, 1776, was known as the 
Battle of Harlem Heights. Absence from New York pre- 
vented my being present at the very interesting and appro- 
priate celebration of the centennial anniversary of that battle. 
When the printed volume of the proceedings, with Mr. Jay's 
excellent oration, was put in my hands/ my surprise was ex- 
pressed that the name Harlem Plains had been used instead of 
Harlem Heights. A remark was made in reply that the battle 
was fought on Harlem Plains, which surprised me still more. 
I immediately set about a search for the historical truth. The 
result of my inquiries is seen in the following paper, which 
was read before the New York Historical Society, as an at- 
tempt to ascertain the proper name and the actual place of the 
battle. This inquiry is quite immaterial except for the pur- 
pose of that historical accuracy which seems to me to be al- 
ways important in questions of the early history of our revo- 
lutionary struggle. 

Before my paper was completed, I was informed that Mr. 
Johnston was writing on the subject for the Long Island His- 
torical Society, and supposing that he might have evidence 
which I had not seen, I invited him to give me an interview, 
which he kindly did, spending an evening with me at my house. 
I read to him the characteristic portions of my paper, as far as 
it was completed, and we conversed on the subject. His views 
differed from mine, as they did from the published accounts 
of all who had written before him. I derived not only pleas- 
ure, but profit, from the interview. After reading my paper 



iii the Society, Mr. John A. Stevens, who was at that time the 
Librarian of the Society, urged me to print it, and when I in- 
formed him that I could not at that time give it the necessary 
attention, he kindly offered to superintend the printing him- 
self, which I declined, the manuscript not being in a condition 
for printing. I had also determined not to print before hav- 
ing an opportunity to see Mr. Johnston's volume. That vol- 
ume proved to be a very valuable and interesting contribution 
to local revolutionaiy history. It did not, however, change 
my views. I then repeatedly invited Mr. Stevens to call on 
me and give me the benefit of his views. He always ex- 
pressed his willingness to do so, but was prevented from com- 
ing. I then determined to wait till Mrs. Lamb's unique, ex- 
cellent and popular history of the City of New York should 
be so far advanced as to embrace her account of the battle, 
knowing, as I did, that her views differed widely from mine. 
Soon after her account was published, I was informed that 
Mr. Stevens had in hand an article for the magazine of Ameri- 
can History. I determined to wait for that also. The publi- 
cation of that number of the magazine Avas unavoidably de- 
layed till the 29th of May last, and by that time my paper 
was in large part printed. 

That magazine article has rendered necessarj r a portion of 
this preface, and some notes which I have appended to my 
paper, which the reader is requested to look at. There are in 
the text a few r alterations and some new facts which I thought 
would more properly appear in the text than in foot notes. 

I had then before me the carefully prepared accounts of 
Mr. Dawson, Mr. Lossing, Mr. Jay, Mr. Johnston, Mrs. Lamb 
and Mr. Stevens, besides my owm, no two of them agreeing, 
except Mrs. Lamb's and my own, which, to my surprise, 
proved to be coincident in many parts, both in substance and 
in language. That coincidence happened as" follows : Soon 
after the celebration, in a conversation with Mrs. Lamb, I ex- 
pressed my views of the evidence as afterwards set forth in 
my paper, from which she expressed a prompt, positive and 
earnest dissent. I then dropped the subject with her, and 
went on with my inquiries. 

Several months afterwards Mrs. Lamb sent her secretary to 



me with a message that she had not been present at the read- 
ing of my paper, and asking me to allow her to read it. I 
cheerfully handed it to the secretary. I did not hear from it 
again till sometime after my return from Europe, in the Au- 
tumn of 1879, when she informed me that the number of her 
history containing her account of the battle, was eleetrotyped 
and ready for the press. I did not read it till after it was de- 
livered to the subscribers. 

A remark was made to me after the reading of my paper, by 
one who had taken much interest in the centennial celebration, 
that my views would destroy the value of that celebration. 
No mistake could be greater. That celebration was in every 
respect a complete and admirable success, and for it we are 
indebted lo Mr. Stevens. He suggested the celebration, and 
he was the master-spirit of the theory and of the arrange- 
ments by which it was carried forward with so much success. 
The place of that commemorative display was well chosen 
and appropriate — elevated, far-overlooking and central. Had 
the battle been then going on, Mr. Jay might have seen the 
smoke of battle as it rose wherever it was, and have almost 
heard the vollies and the cannon, mingling with the well de- 
served plaudits of his hearers. On his either hand would be 
the two commanders, at their headquarters, directing the move- 
ments. The objective point of both was the same, Harlem 
Heights, Howe to attack and Washington to defend — neither 
having a thought of Harlem Plains. It could be no one but 
Washington who sent out, Knowlton, and Reed, and Leitch, 
and Putnam and Greene, onthe Heights, and no one but Howe 
who sent off the Fifth British Regiment of Foot to trot three 
miles, double quick, to support and rescue Leslie, three miles 
away, and it could be no one but him who sent forward the 
8,000 or 10,000 fresh British regulars, who were just coming- 
over the Bloomingdale hills when Washington ordered our 
jubilant troops to be called in. 

That Mr. Stevens and Mr. Jay should be mistaken in their 
judgment on some facts of locality and some movements, is 
neither important nor singular. A hundred years of decay and 
of the changes wrought by modern improvements, have im- 
paired the force of evidence, which was always scrappy, 



sketchy and scattered, and not so forcible before being collated 
and combined. Different minds would view it differently, 
some would give more weight to one thing and some to 
another, even if the whole testimony was before them, as it 
would not be. Much of it has been discovered since Mr. 
Jay's oration was delivered, and doubtless more will be dis- 
covered hereafter, during the quickened search of this centen- 
nial period. The whole subject is one of fair historical in- 
vestigation, without feeling or prejudice or pride of opinion. 

In referring to the evidence, I have inserted in the paper and 
in this preface, only verbatim extracts from each document and 
I have printed those extracts in italics, to give them a sharper 
outline and to make a more distinct and forcible, and at the 
same time more harmonious, presentation of the proofs. It 
should also be remarked that the references, Jay, 25, etc., are 
not to be understood as quoting Mr. Jay personally, but 
simply as a reference to the page of the Jay commemorative 
volume, the pages of that volume being numbered consecu- 
tively from the first to the last, including the appendix. 

Mr. Stevens has gone awkwardly out of his way to throw 
discredit on the history of Mrs. Lamb, now nearly finished, 
and to say that I am justly chargeable with leading her into 
topographical and historical error, and to say this for no other 
probable reason than that I have been compelled to differ with 
him respectfully on a matter of revolutionary history which 
is somewhat dim with age, and on which all other writers on 
the subject have come to conclusions differing from his 
own and from each other. 

He begins by suggesting that my view assumes that Wash- 
ington "committed such a blunder as to have neglected to 
hold the southern extremity of the heights on which his army 
was encamped." The reverse is expressly stated in my ac- 
count, and is true, that Washington held not only the south- 
ern extremity, but the whole of the Heights where his army 
was encamped. His strong pickets ran along the eastern brow 
of the Heights to the Point of Rocks, and along the northern 
brow of the Manhattanville hollow-way, to the North 
River. Immediately above them was the advanced guard 
of two brigades commanded bj' General Greene, and 



above them lay the brigades of which Colonel Silliman's 
command was a part — vide page 24. Washington held the 
whole of the Heights two months. 

I shall not now review all the errors of Mr. Stevens. I leave 
them to be compared with the proofs mendoned in my paper. 
His petty fault-finding manner is evidence that he may have 
been influenced by " private griefs" as much as by the love of 
historical truth. I must, however, mention a few characteristic 
instances to show how carelessly he makes his attack. 

Mrs. Lamb snys : Washington saw large bodies of the enemy 
upon Vie high grounds opposite. To this Mr. Stevens says : 

There is no direct evidence to any appearance of large bodies 
anywhere. Let us see. Washington himself distinctly 
says : About the time of the post's departure with my let- 
ter, the enemy appeared in several large bodies upon the plains, 
about 2% miles from here. (Date, Headquarters, Morris' 
House.) I rode down to our advanced posts to put matters 
in a proper situation if they should attempt to come on, when 
I arrived there 1 heard a firing, which I was informed was 
between a party of our rangers, under the command of Colonel 
Knowlton, and an advanced party of the enemy. — Jay, 40. He 
says again, in another letter: On Holiday morning last, several 
parties of the enemy appeared on the high grounds opposite to our 
heights, and some skirmishing hael happened between our troops 
and those of the enemy. — Jay, 44. Mr. Stevens thinks the 
second of these statements of Washington is correct — the other 
not ! They are the same statement — referring to the plains on 
the high grounds opposite — that is, Bloomingdale Heights. 

Colonel Silliman (date, Harlem Heights, Sept. 17th) says: 
Yesterday, at 7 o'clock in themorning, we were alarmed with the 
sight of a considereible number of the enemy on the pterins between 
us, about a mile distant. — Jay, 57. This fixes the time, 7 A.M. 
Colonel Reed says : Just after I had seeded my letter an ac- 
count came that the enemy was advancing in three large columns. 
—Jay, 47-49. 

Colonel Humphrey says : Next morning several parties of the 
i in my appeeired upon theplains in our front. General Wash- 
ington rode quickly for the outposts for the purpose of preparing 
for an attack if the enemy should come on. — Life of Putnam, 



140. The enemy did not come on till a little before 12 o'clock, 
several hours later. — Jay, 57. 

Notwithstanding attempts which have been made to throw 
discredit on father Weems's story of the cherry tree and the 
hatchet, I think that with the testimony of these three officers, 
every one of them on the spot, and of the highest credibility, 
Mrs. Lamb had a right to consider Washington's character for 
veracity good. 

Again, Mrs. Lamb says: Before daylight Washington was in 
the saddle. His first important act was to send Knowlton with 
a picked company of '120 nn n to learn tin position of and take the 
enemy's advanced guard. Mr. Stevens says: For this also there 
is no authority. Let us see. 

A letter from an officer in the army to his friend, published 
at the time in the Connecticut Gazette, says: On Monday 
morning the General ordered us to go and take the enemy's ad- 
vanced guard; accordingly, we set out just before day and found 
where Hay were. — Jay, GO. 

This officer is well understood to have been Captain Oliver 
Brown, Knowlton's senior captain, who was appointed by 
Washington to the command of the rangei's on Knowlton's 
death. — Jay, 60. He was there in the battle, an officer of the 
120 picked men. It was he who said My poor Colonel (Knowl- 
ton) was shot just by my side. I took bold of him and asked him 
if he wasbadly wounded, be told me he was, and as his life ebbed 
away he said : " I do notvalue my life if we do but get the day;" 
and it was he who ordered two of his men to carry the dying 
hero to the rear. It could be nobody but Captain Brown. — 
Jay, GO. He was a brave, patriotic and good man, recorded as 
distinguished attlie battle of Harlem Heights, White Plains, 
Princeton, Trenton, Brandywine, Gerrnantoiru and Monmouth. 
Better believe him, Mr. Stevens, as Mrs. Lamb does, and as I 
do. See his Epitaph in the Appendix, Note 4. 

Mr. S. says, that the statement of Mrs. Lamb that this bat- 
tle was evidently a part of the British plan to drive the Ameri- 
cans from the island has no basis in contemporaneous history. 

Let us see. 

General George Clinton says: It is witliout doubt, they 
had out on the occasion between 4000 and 5000 of their choicest 



troops, and expected to have drove us off the island. They an 

greatly mortified at their disappointment. — Jay, 54. 

A letter from headquarters to a gentleman in Annapolis, 
dated Sept. 17th says : We expect every hour that the general en- 
gagement will come on. — Jay, 02. 

In general orders of the lGth, General Washington says: 
General Nixon's and Colonel Sargeant's elivison, Colonel Weedon's 
and Major Price's regiments, are to retire to their quarters to re- 
fresh th< mselves, but to hold themsleves in readiness to turn out at 
a minute's 'warning. General McDougall to establish proper 
guards against his brigade upon the heights from Morris' House 
to General McDougaU's camp, to furnish proper guards to pre- 
vent et surprise, not less than twenty men from each regiment. 
General Putnam commands upon the right flank to-night. Gen- 
eral Spencer, from McDougaU's brigade, up to Morris House. 
Should the enemy attempt to force the pass to-night, General Put- 
nam is to apply to General Spencer for a reinforcement. — Jay, 
65. Baurmeister, 24th Sept., says: The English Light In- 
fantry advanced too quickly on the retreat of the enemy. — Jay, 82. 

General Sir Henry Clinton says: The ungm-e enable impetu- 
osity of the light.troops drew us into Uds scrape. — Jay, 81. The 
light infantry who were the van of our army pressed too gal- 
lantly upon the rebels. — Jay, 80. 

The complaint is clearly that they were premature — they at- 
tacked too soon. 

It has been said that there is no evidence that at any time on 
the Kith, "a single Britisher succeeded in crossing or attempted 
to cross the Manhattan ville Hollow -way." Let us see: 

I suppose that Silliman's entrenchments across the Island 
were where they are placed by Mrs. Lamb, beginning about 
153d street, near the bank of the Harlem River, and ending 
quite on the bank of the Hudson River, because there were no 
other entrenchments across the island to the river, and because 
Silliman says they took in three little redoubts which were there 
before, and are shown on the map. It is, however, for the 
present purpose quite immaterial whether they were there, or 
lower down, where two months later, Sauthier's map shows 
was another line of entrenchments beginning about half the 
distance from the Harlem River to the Hudson, and ending on 
the Hudson, apparently a stronger work than Silliman's. 



Now, Colonel Silliman says: About half a mile below us in 
the woods, we had two brigade s lying as an advanced guard. The 
enemy in a large body advanced in the woods a little before 12 
o'clock and began a heavy fire on those brigades. — Jay, 57. 
General Greene commanded those brigades. 

General Greene says in his letter to the Governor of Rhode 
Island— his State: "On tin 16th wt had a skirmish at Harlem 
Heights. A party of about a thousand came and attacked our 
advanced post, and Putnam and Reed took part in that 
right. — Jay, 55. In another letter General Greene says: " The 
enemy next day at Harlem Heights, flushed with the success 
of the day before, approached and attacked our lines where I 
had the honor to con, maud," Jay, 66. " General Putnam 
and the Adjutant-General were in the action, and behaved 
nobly." — Jay, 67. 

I have carefully studied the various accounts of this battle, 
and now, after all that has been said, I am compelled to say 
that I have not seen any evidence that after the eight rounds 
apiece of the skirmish between Leslie and Knowlton in the 
early morning, there was a shot fired below the American 
pickets along the brow of the Manhattanville Hollow-way, so 
clearly and truly represented on Mr. Johnston's map " Field 
of the Harlem Heights affair," at page 259 of his volume. 

The opinions of the writers, that all the fighting was below 
those pickets and so within the British picket lines, are very 
clearly given, but they all fail to state the evidence on which 
they formed those opinions, which opinions seem quite inad- 
missible. Mr. Stevens seems to suppose that where the facts 
are inconsistent with his theory, so much the worse for the 
facts, and that what he so often calls "The fair inference," 
" The natural inference," "The presumptive evidence" of his 
theory must prevail over the written statements of officers of 
high character who were on the spot. 

Of all the extraordinary statements of Mr. Stevens, the most 
extraordinary is this, that th<r, is n<>t a shadow of authority for 
Mrs. Lamb's statement that Knowlton was discovered at sunrise 
and attacked by 400 of the British Infantry near Vandewaters 
Heights. 

In addition to the proofs quoted on pages 28 to 30, I invite 



attention to the testimony of Hall's Civil War in America, 
which distinctly and significantly furnishes the missing link 
which connects the parts of this story, stating where Knowl- 
ton's camp was, the place from which the Rangers " set out " 
before daylight, and the place 2% miles distant where they 
were discovered and attacked by Leslie a little later in the 
morning. Hall says: On the sixteenth in the morning, a body of 
the enemy (the Rangers) turned out of their lines on Morris 
Heights, and appeared * * near the. edge of a wood in front 
of our left flank, on which two companies of Light Infantry 
(Leslie) were sent to dislodge them. 

Now it is quite immaterial what route Knowlton took when 
he ''set out," or when he " came in " for re-inforcements. I 
must however insist that it is probable, as stated in my paper, 
page 27, that he went out by the low unobstructed shore of 
the river, out of sight and of hearing of both armies, and that 
he "came in" through the woods that covered the heights 
along the shore, pursued by Leslie, also in the woods. 

The point of Mr. Stevens as to the barracks, I presume 
would not have been made by him were it not that he makes 
1 he basis of it a map which has no existence except in the gar- 
bled and "cooked" copy of a map substituted for and called the 
original Sauthier's map in the magazine article. What an idea 
to " cook " an old historical map into a made-dish and serve 
it as the original! The barracks built and burned by the 
Americans were the barracks near Fort Washington, burned 
by Colonel Lasher by the special order of General Heath. I 
invite attention to note 5 in the Appendix in which I make 
some remarks as to the maps and the barracks. At the time 
of the battle there were no barracks below Manhattanville— 
nor indeed anywhere else ; it was warm weather, September 
16th, and the two armies had arrived on these fields only 
the night before, and it is not easy to see how Sauthier's 
map, not made till after November 16th, when barracks were 
necessary, could furnish evidence that the Americans were 
fighting within the British lines and had barracks there two 
months before. 
June 22, 1880. 

E C. BENEDICT. 



THE 

EVACUATION OF NEW YORK, 



AND THE 



BATTLE OF HAELEI HEIGHTS, 

IN SEPTEMBER, 1776. 



The Evacuation of the City of New York and the Battle of 
Harlem Heights, to which it led, are so nearly connected as to 
be one military event, and are so important as to deserve a 
more careful history than they have yet received. That battle 
was the first American victory of the Revolutionary War. 

This Society, on the centennial anniversary of the day of the 
battle, celebrated so important an event in an appropriate 
manner under the mistaken name of the Battle of Harlem 
Plains. Assembled thousands, convened from this and other 
States, on the high grounds overlooking northward the battle- 
field and the camp grounds of the preceding night, listened to 
a patriotic and eloquent commemorative oration by Air. Jay, 
our late Minister to Austria, which was published by the Soci- 
ety. In recommending the Society to celebrate the event, 
the Executive Committee very justly says: The action, though 
of minor importance, teas one of the most brilliant exploits of the 
Revolutionary War. In a close conflict, the most celebrated of 
the British regiments, after an unsuccessful effort to break the 
American lines, icere repulsed and driven back in confusion 



by lite Continental troops. This success restored confidence to the 
patriot forces, demoralized by the retreat from Long Island and 
the subsequent landing at Kips Bay. — Jay, 86. There was no 
large and general plan of attack, and at the end of the day each 
army kept the positions which it had before the attack was 
made (Jay, 52-76) ; and in the number of casualties, the battle 
was indeed of minor importance, but in historical results the 
affair was as important as it was brilliant, and was so esteemed 
at the time. 

It is the object of this paper to contribute some general 
views and some historical details which have hitherto escaped 
proper notice, and which serve to correct some statements, now 
shown by this further evidence to be erroneous. The chief of 
those errors are in regard to the proper historical name of the 
battle and the place where it was actually fought, both of 
which are important to the truth of history and to its com- 
memorations. Before considering the evidence in detail, some 
general views, which seem to me to have much weight, will be 
presented. 

THE MORAL EFFECT OF THE BATTLE 

upon the two armies was very striking and very important. 

The British were convinced that they had been in an unfor- 
tunate scrape. In a manuscript note by Sir Henry Clinton, 
in his copy of Stedman's History of the American War, he 
says: The ungovernable impetuosity of the light troops drew us 
into this scrape. — Jay, 81. 

In the British order book of the next morning the Com- 
mander-in-Chief disapproves the conduct of the Light Company 
in pursuing the rebels 'without proper discretion and without sup- 
port. — Jay, 77. Lieut, Harris, of the Fifth British Foot, a pari 
of the British reserve (Jay, 77), says: We were instantly trotted 
about three miles, without a halt to draw breath, to support a bat- 
talion of Light Infantry which had imprudently advanced so far 
icithout support as to be in danger of being cut off. This must 
have happened but for our haste. — Jay, 79. The Hessian General 
Donop says: General Leslie 7tad mads a great blunder in sending 
these bra ve fellows so far in adva nee in the woods icithout s uppori. — 
Jay, 82. General Howe found it necessary to recommend the corps 
u nder the command of General Leslie to be not only brave but more 



prudent. — Jay, 83. General George Clinton says of the enemy : 
They are greatly mortified at their disappointment, and have ever 
since been exceedingly modest and quiet, not having even patroling 
parties beyond their lines. I lay within a mile of them the night 
after the battle, ami never heard men work harder. I believe that 
they thought ice intended to pursue our advantage and attack them 
next morning. — Jay, 54-55. The brave Captain Gooch, writ- 
ing to a Boston merchant, says : The great superiority of num- 
bers, and every other advantage the enemy had, when considered, 
makes the victory glorious, and though but over a part of their 
army, yet the consequences of it are attended ivilh advantages very 
great, as they immediately quitted the heights all round us, and 
have not been troublesome since. — Jay, 60. Colonel Lamb was at 
this time confined in a British prison ship. After his release 
he told Dr. Stiles that an officer came on board on Lords-day 
evening (15 September), damning the Yankees for runaway 
cowards, and storming that tfiere was no chance to fight and get 
Iwnor and rise. He was in the Monday action also, and came 
again on board in tfie evening, cursing and damning the war, 
saying he had found the Americans would fight, ■ and that it 
would be impossible to conquer them. — Jay, 69. Lewis Morris, 
Jr., writes to his father: The impression it made upon the minds 
of our people is a most signal victory to us, and the defeat a con- 
siderable mortification to them. — Jay, 56. Colonel Sillimansays: 
Our people drove the regulars back from post to post about a mile 
and a half, and then left them pretty well satisfied with tlieir din- 
ner. Since which they have been very quiet. They have found 
now that when ice meet them on equal ground we are not a lot of 
people thai wdl run from them, but that they have now hud << 
pretty good drubbing. — Jay, 57. A British officer, in a letter 
from New York, dated September 23d, a week after the battle, 
says : I am pretty confident our General will not attack them in 
their advantageous situation with musquetry. He seems deter- 
mined to mafce no improper sacrifices. We have a noble train of 
artillery. — Upcott Collection. SirWilliam Howe, says Colonel 
Humphrey, not choosing to put too much at risk in attacking us 
in front, on the 12th of October, moved to Frog's Neck.— Humph- 
rey's Life of Putnam, 144. The British were humiliated. 
On the other hand, the Americans were overjoyed with their 



success. It was our first victory iu the war. Colonel Humph- 
rey says: An advantage so trivial in itself, produced, in event, a 
most surprising and almost incredible effect upon the whole army. 
Among the troops not engaged, who, during the action, were thro/r- 
ing earth from the new trenches with an alacrity that indicated a 
determination to defend them, every visage was seen to lighten and 
to assume, instead of the gloom of despair, the glow of anima- 
tion. — Humphrey, 142-3. 

Major Fish wrote to Mr. McKesson, the Secretary of the 
Convention: 

Our troops were in a most desponding condition before, hut 
now are in good spirits. — Jay, 59. Lewis Morris Jr. says: Our 
people consider it a most signal victory to us. — Jay, 56. George 
Clinton writes to the New York Convention: It has animated 
our troops, given them new spirits and erased every bad impression 
the retreat from Long Island, &e.,had left upon their minds, — 
they find they are able with inferior numbers to drive their 
enemy, and think of nothing now but conquest. — Jay, 52. Adju- 
tant-General Reed says: I assure you it has given another face of 
tilings in our army. You, can hardly conceive the change it made 
in our army. It has given spirits to our men. The men have re- 
covered their spirits, and feel a confidence which before they had 
quite lost. General Washington says: Our army seems to be 
greatly inspirited by it. — Jay, 45. This little advantage has i it- 
spirited our troops prodigiously. — Jay, 43. All seem to concur 
in the opinion that it was the result of the true character of 
our troops as patriotic and brave officers and men. Never did 
troops go to the field with more cheerfulness and alacrity, says an 
officer of the Maryland Regulars. — Jay, 61. It also destroyed 
the prestige of the British soldiers. They find, says Washing- 
ton, that it only requires resolution and good officers to make an 
enemy (that they stood in too much dread of) give way. — Jay, 43. 
General George Clinton says: They find they are able with 
inferior numbers to drive their enemy. — Jay, 52. Colonel Silli- 
man says: They have found now that when we meet them on equal 
ground we are not a set of people that will run from them, but they 
have now had a pretty good drubbing. — Jay, 57. General Knox 
says: They (the Americans ) find that if they stick to these mighty 
men, tliey will run as fast as other people. — Jay, 51. 



Captain Gooch says: I'm now rend)/ to give them the second 
part whenever they have an appetite, as I'm convinced whenever 
they stir from their ships we shall drub them. — Jay, 60. This 
self-reliance acquired in this battle went with our troops 
through the war, and it is here presented before examining the 
evidence, because it cannot fail to have an important influence 
in giving force to the evidence. 

After the retreat from Long Island came rest, reflection and 
forecast, till the plans of the commanders of the two armies 
were former). Then came the evacuation of the City and the 
retreat to Harlem Heights and the battle there, which entirely 
deranged the plans of Lord Howe and changed the plans of 
both armies. The plans of the British for northward and 
eastward conquest were then suspended and were never ac- 
complished. The military events of the 15th and 16th days of 
September doubtless mainly produced that result. 

THERE WERE TWO ENGAGEMENTS. 

What is called by Major Gardner the affair of Harlem 
Heights was made up of two separate engagements, distant 
from each other in time and place. The first— a skirmish — 
commenced in the morning, about daybreak, and the Ameri- 
cans, although fighting bravely, were compelled to retreat 
back to their camp for support, hotly pursued by the enemy. 
The second — the grand battle of the day— began about eleven 
in the forenoon. — Jay, 57. In this the Americans were com 
pletely successful in four hours of continued fighting, driving 
the enemy from post to post till three p.m., when General 
Washington ordered them to give over the pursuit and to 
return to their camps.— Jay, 48. This fact of two actions, 
both of winch were attacks by the British, is exceedingly im- 
portant in analyzing the evidence, and properly applying its 
parts respectively to the events and positions of the day and 
the field. 

THE AMOUNT AND CHARACTER OP THE FORCES 

engaged deserve particular consideration. There is no room 
for doubt as to the forces engaged in the skirmish, or first 
engagement, at early dawn. On the side of the British was 
a battalion of British Light Infantry, which was the van of 



6 

the British army (Jay, 80), about 400 in number, under General 
Leslie; and the Americans had 120 picked men, under Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Knowlton, whose command was known as Hie 
Rangers. 

The number of troops engaged in the second action, which 
is more properly called the Battle, is important. Some 
officer — in every detachment engaged — mentions what troops 
of which he was part were in the battle. These are the de- 
tails on the American side. 

Col. Knowlton's men (Jay, 60) 120 

Major Leitch'b men — three companies Virginia Rifles 

(jay, 44-63) say 120 

Col. Griffith's and Col. Hichardson's Maryland Regi- 
ments and some detachments of Eastern troops 

(Jay, 45) say 500 

Major Mantz' three companies of Rifles (Jay, 03) . . . .say 120 

Remainder of that brigade (Jay, Gl) say 500 

Weedon's Virginia regiment, Price's three independent 
companies Maryland troops, three other companies 
Maryland Flying Camp, a battalion of Virginians, and 

some Northern troops (Jay, 63) say 800 

One regiment of Rhode Islanders (Jay, 61) say 350 

Massachusetts Brigade, including Crary's Volunteers 

(Jay, 59) 900 

American advanced guard, two brigades (Jay, 5?). . .say 1500 

4910 
These are estimated at the lowest figures, and amount 
to 4910 men. 

There were several field pieces on each side. — Jay, 52-54. 
Lieutenant Heinrichs, of Donop's Yagers, who was in the bat- 
tle, and was wounded about one o'clock, says the American 
force engaged was 4000 strong. — Jay, 83. Baurmeister says 
the same.— Jay, 82. Stewart speaks of one attack by 3000 
men. — Jay, 78. General Howe also says his reserve was at- 
tacked by nearly three thousand men. — Jay, 77. The 
above estimate is clearly within bounds. 

We have not the same details of the British forces engaged. 



They are usually spoken of as superior to ours in numbers. 
General George Clinton, speaking with caution and correcting 
his original estimate, says : / did not think so many men were 
engaged; it is without doubt, however, they had out on the occa- 
sion between four and five thousand of their choicest troops, and 
expected to have drove us off the Island. — Jay, 51. Besides these 
there were about 8,000 or 10,000 concealed behind the hill. — Jay, 
62. On a review of the situation and of the day, General 
Clinton, on our side, and Major Baurmeister, of the Ger- 
mans, and other officers on both sides, evidently believed that 
this battle was to have been but a continuation of the pursuit 
of the day before, and was intended to drive the Americans 
off the Island. With us, it was unexpected, extempore, and 
defensive. With them, it was part of their purpose to take 
the Americans unprepared, and to get possession of the 
northern passes to the interior and to the East. Washington's 
general orders of that day, after the battle, show clearly that 
he expected the British attack to be renewed.— Jay, 65. A 
Maryland officer writes on the next day : We expect every 
hour that the general engagement will come on. — Jay, 62. 

Up to this time the British Regulars had maintained their 
great historic character of invincibility. At Bunker Hill, at 
Long Island, and at Kips Bay, their record was unbroken. It 
is hardly to be believed, the character, policy, and position 
of Washington being considered, and his then remarkable feel- 
ing of discouragement, that he threw half his effective force 
more than a mile from the strong position of Harlem Heights 
into the face of a fresh and victorious army of British Regu- 
lars, ten to twelve thousand strong, with no hope, in case of 
retreat, but surrender or slaughter in the narrow Manhattan - 
ville pass, with its rocky and precipitous sides. Washington 
evidently did not intend to attack ; he thought only of defence. 

THE MORNING ATTACK OF THE BRITISH LIGHT INFANTRY. 

Another view. Stedman says, and so was the fact: The 
action was carried on by reinforcements on both sides. The enemy 
( the Americans ), however , possessed a great advantage from the 
circumstance of engaging within half a mile of their entrenched 
ci/mj), whence they could be supplied with fresh troops as often as 



occasion required.— Jay, 80. At the time of this battle the Am- 
ericans had no entrenched camp below 101st street. The main 
body of the army was at Morris Heights and there the camp 
of the Rangers must have been. Half a mile below that, would 
be at about 151st street, between which and Manhattanville 
the main and final action must have been fought. 

The British General, Sir Henry Clinton, made a note in his 
own handwriting to this paragraph in a copy of Stedman's 
History: It was the ungovernable impetuosity of the Light troops 
that drew vs into this scrape. — Jay, 81. Scrape indeed it was! 
The scrape would have been on the other side, however, if the 
fight with the Light troops had been on Bloomingdale Heights 
where Knowltou's force that encountered them would have 
been in the jaws of death. But what was " the scrape," that 
the impetuosity of the Light troops led the British into? 
Major Shaw, writing to his father, September 18, says: The 
day before yesterday, a part of them attempted to force a passage 
through some woods, and to take possession of a number of heights, 
but were repulsed with loss, by an equal, if not inferior body of 
our troops, who behaved with as much bravery as men possibly 
could. — Jay, 64. The Light Infantry who are the van of our 
army, pressed too gallantly upon a very superior body of the 
rebels, and drove them off.— Jay, 80. It frustrated the plans of 
the British officers for the new pursuit of that day. It began ■ 
the battle prematurely, before they were ready, and in the 
wrong place too — in the upper part of Harlem Heights, where 
they could not be supported in time to prevent the Americans 
from beginning to drive the British, and, by the momentum 
and prestige of victory, keeping them going till they were 
driven off Harlem Heights, back to their own lines. 

What had the Light troops done? Lieutenant Harris, of 
the fifth Foot, says: They had imprudently advanced so far 
witliout support, as to be in great danger of being cut off. This 
must hare happened but fir our haste. — Jay, 79. They were 
engaged in n wood. — Jay, 78. They were advanced so far that 
the support was instantly trotted about three miles (without a 
hall to draw breath), to support them. — Jay, 79. Colonel 
Donop, with his Yagers, was also ordered to move up to sup- 
port Leslie (Jay, 81), and he moved up with his Yagers, and 



the Grenadier battalion of Linsingen. He says: But for my 
Yagers, two regiments of Highlanders and the British Light In- 
fantry would hate all, perhaps, been captured, for they were at- 
1 a cltd by a force four times their number, and General Leslie 
had made a great blunder in sending those brave fellows so far in 
advance in the woods without support. — Jay, 82. And Major 
Baurmeister says : The English Light Infantry advanced too 
quickly on the retreat of the enemy, and if the Grenadiers, and 
especially the Hessian Yagers, had not arrived in time to help 
them, none of those brave Light Infantry would have escaped. — 
Jay, 82. 

DISCREPANCY IN RECENT ACCOUNTS. 

There is a remarkable difference as to the place and course 
of this battle in the various accounts of it, given by recent 
historical writers of respectability, no two of them agreeing. 

One supposes the battle to have begun about 124th street, 
between 10th and 11th avenues, and to have passed over the 
Lunatic Asylum grounds to 8th avenue and 109th street. An- 
other supposes the battle to have begun about 5th avenue and 
110th street, where the Americans fell back towards their 
camp, till re-enforced, when they drove the British back across 
the plains to the woods, on the hills now included in tin- 
northern portion of the Central Park, the fighting being prin- 
cipally on the Harlem Plains, which he seems to have sup- 
posed justified him in calling it the battle of Harlem Plains. 
Another supposes the battle to have commenced near the south- 
ern extremity of the Bloomingdale ridge, whence the Ameri- 
cans retreated to the northernmost end of that ridge, to a gully 
or ravine between 10th and 11th avenues, at what he supposes 
was Matje David's Fly, where the fighting again began and 
moved onwards to the line of 118th street, east of the asylum 
grounds, which he supposes was the field of the principal 
battle. 

Since this paper was read before the Society, Mr. Johnston's 
" Campaign round New York in 1776," has been published. 
He places the whole battle below Manhattanville, beginning at 
123d street and 9th avenue, and ending between 105th and 
110th street and 11th and 12th avenues, on the banks of the 



10 

Hudson River. — Johnston, 258, 98, map. All these positions 
seem to me to be quite unsupported by proof, and such re- 
markable discrepancy should be reviewed and revised, in the 
interests of historical accuracy. 

As an appendix to Mr. Jay's oration, Mr. Kelby, the Assis- 
tant Librarian of the Society, lias sought out and for the first 
time published together contemporaneous written evidence in 
regard to these events from thirty -six American, eight British 
and five Hessian pens, written while the facts were recent, by 
men who participated in the events which they describe. In 
collecting and comparing them, we are constantly reminded of 
the importance of preserving every piece of evidence in rela- 
tion to the revolutionary period. The smallest scrap of paper 
which, by itself, seems to have no significance or value, is 
sometimes found to contain the missing link which unites greal 
and important chains of events. Such positive written, con- 
temporary testimony, by all the laws of evidence, is held to 
outweigh the gossip of hearsay and tradition, and the assump- 
tions of more recent date which lack written evidence. 

In studying these proofs we must remember thai the opera 
tions were quite extempore and occupied much time, and ex- 
tended over a large field of broken and irregular character, 
made up of forests, and woods, and rocks, and precipices and 
heights, and that the writers were some in one place and some 
in another, and all were absorbed in the stirring events of the 
right where they were respectively engaged. 

It would be strange, indeed, if we could not evolve a correct 
and true history from such materials. By first ascertaining 
such facts and localities as are certain, we never fail to show 
other facts and constructions to be necessary and therefore 
certain. These again influence others, till finally, as in putting 
together the parts of a dissected map, seeming incompatabilities 
vanish and the whole becomes certain and harmonious. It is, 
however, necessaiy always to remember that estimates of time 
and distance, in the midst of excitement and hurry, are so 
flexible and uncertain, that they may properly be so modified 
as to conform to facts that are certain, to localities that are 
fixed and to combinations that are necessary. 



11 



THE HISTORICAL NAME OP THE BATTLE. 

As I shall speak of it as the battle of Harlem Heights, it is 
fitting that I should show that to be its proper historical name, 
for that too has its influence in studying this evidence and 
giving its parts their true significance. For if the battle was 
at the time known as the battle of Harlem Heights, it would 
require very strong evidence to show that it was fought in 
either of these four places, no one of which was in the vicinity 
of Harlem Heights, nor could with any propriety be called 
Harlem Heights. 

There are very few original historians of unclassified details 
who, on a careful review" of what they have first written, have 
not been glad of an opportunity to correct some errors of their 
first impressions. In historical inquiries, there should be no 
place for pride of preconceived opinion, nor for prejudices 
formed from investigations which were necessarily one-sided, 
and may have been made too hastily. Inquiry will, at last, 
bring out that historical accuracy which all should desire. 

This battle was known in history, as the Battle of Harlan 
Heights (occasionally as the Battle of Harlem), and by no other 
name for three-quarters of a century after it was fought. Our 
whole army went to Harlem Heights as a strong place to be 
defended. Encamping on the heights southwest of Colonel Mor- 
ris', where they intended to form lines and make our grand stand. 
— Jay, 51. They did so, and held it for two months. Harlem 
Plains, at the time of this battle, consisted of cultivated fields, 
bearing harvests, which were still there more than two weeks 
after the battle, when our army attempted to appropriate them 
as forage. One of our officers says in a letter, dated October 
3, seventeen days after this battle : These plains would afford 
an excellent field for a fight. — Jay, 70. 

Perhaps, no general officers of the army were more carefully 
correct in their military statements than General Greene and 
General Heath. An entry in General Heath's journal on the 
day of the battle, says it happened on the heights west of Harlem 
Plains and south of Morris" House. — Jay, 73. The western 
boundary of Harlem Plains, was about along the Ninth ave- 
nue, from Morris' House to 110th street, and any portion of 



12 

those heights along that western boundary, might be described 
as west of Harlem Plaint, but certainly, not as part of Harlem 
Plains, and below Manhattanville, it would not be described as 
south of Morris' House. 

General Greene, in a letter to the Governor of Rhode Island. 
under date of the 17th, the day after the battle, (he and Put- 
nam commanded the American forces after the fall of Knowl- 
ton and Leitch), says : On the 16th, we had a skirmish at 
Harlem Heights, a parly of about 1,000 came and attached our 
advance post. * * * The fire continued about an Twur, and 
the enemy retreated. Our people pursued them, andby thesplendid 
conduct of General Putnam and Colonel Reed, the Adjutant- 
General, our people advanced upon the plain ground without 
cover, and attacked them and drove them back. — Jay, 55. On 
the 4th of October, the same careful and correct officer says : 
The enemy next day, (lQth) at Harlem Heights, flushed with the 
success of the day before, approached and attacked our lines, 
where I had the honor to command, (Jay, G6) ; at the advance 
post, half a mile below Colonel Silliman's entrenching bri- 
gades. — Jay, 57. The action, or rather skirmish, lasted about 
tiro hours. Our people beat the enemy off the ground — Jay, 66. 
General Putnam and the Adjutant- General were in the action, 
and behaved nobly. — Jay, 67. 

Colonel Knowlton is recorded in the biographical history of 
the country as a brave officer, who lost his life in the Battle of 
Harlem Heights. 

Drake says of him: At the Battle of Harlem Height a. while ex- 
hibiting his usual intrepidity, he fell. Major Gardner, in the 
history of the Uniforms of the American Army, calls it the 
a fair of Harlem Heights. — 1st Mag. Am. His., 70. Spafford, 
in the first edition of his Gazetteer, 1813, p. 86, says: Har- 
lem Heights will long be remembered by Americans associated 
with important events of the Revolutionary War, as well as Feyrt 
Washington. 

Mr. Dawson, in his paper read before this Society and pub- 
lished, calls it the Battle of Harlem Heights, and makes that the 
title of his paper. Mr. Lossing, in his Table of Battles of the 
Revolution, mentions the Battle of Harlem Heights. Mr. John 
ston, in his Campaign round New York, gives the battle the 



13 

name of the Battle of Harlem Heights. The epitaph of Captain 
Oliver Brown, of the Massachusetts line, states that he bore a 
conspicuous part ett the battles of Harlem Heights, White Plains, 
&(-.— Mag. Am. Hist., June, 1879, p. 37G. I have not seen 
any evidence that there was any fighting, much less any battle 
on Harlem Plains. There could hardly be a greater misnomer 
than to call Bloomingdale Heights Harlem Plains. 

I confess to a great respect and affection for those names of 
the revolutionary period which have passed into history, and 
have become, as it were, classical and memorial names, and I 
therefore use the old, true aud descriptive name, Harlem 
Heights. 

THE TOPOGRAPHY OP THE ISLAND OP NEW YORK 

forms so important a portion of the evidence, that I shall 
give a brief description of it, using, however, such names of 
localities and landmarks as are familiar to us, since change 
and the progress of improvement have modified the landscape. 

The Roads.— The Island above the City was intersected 
lengthwise by three great thoroughfares. First, the Eastern or 
Old Road, was the grand highway through the Island. It 
made its way from Broadway at the Park, up what are now 
Chatham street, the Bowery and the general line of Third 
avenue, till bearing West of the Fifth avenue by a crooked 
way through McGowan's Pass, it crossed Harlem Bridge. It 
was sometimes called the Old Post Road and the Old Boston 
Road. It led to New England. Second. The Bloomingdale 
Road, which was a continuation of Broadway, leading off to 
I he westward from Madison Square, and pursuing the line of 
the present Broadway, along the course of the Hudson River, 
nearer or more remotely, through a changing region of low r 
hills and winding vales towards the valley which is now called 
Manhattan ville. The region in its whole breadth quite up to 
Manhattanville, was known by the beautiful descriptive name 
of Bloomingdale, which gave its name to the road. It was 
sometimes called the Kingsbridge road. 

This road, as a legal highway, terminated at Adrian Hoog- 
land's house, near the river, at about 115th street, It was con- 
tinued as a farm-road through his farm. It, however, was 



14 

connected, near Hoogland's, by another public road, nearly al 
right angles with the Kingsbridge road, and with it passed 
over Harlem Heights to Kingsbridge. 

The Middle Road started from Broadway and led up the Fifth 
avenue, and between the Fifth and Sixth avenues to and 
through McGowan's Pass, where it also joined the Kings- 
bridge Road and the Old Post Road. 

On the most eastern of these roads, the Old Boston Road. 
I here were milestones from which localities and distances were 
described and measured from the City Hall, afterwards called 
Federal Hall, in Wall street. The distances are now measured 
from the present City Hall. The 8th milestone was at 125th 
street, on the Old Post Road, north of the village of Harlem. 
These great thoroughfares were intersected and connected at 
different angles by local roads from one side of the Island to- 
wards the other, and by farm-roads and lanes for agricultural 
convenience. 

Harlem. — The township of Harlem embraced all the Island 
of New York north of a line from the southern point of Har- 
lem Cove, at Matje David's Fly. to the western channel of the 
East River near 76th street. The village of Harlem was then 
a small village at about the junction of Second and Third 
avenues and 123d and 125th street on the shore of Harlem 
River, on the margin of Harlem Plains. Harlem Plains was 
an alluvial flat which extended from the shore of Harlem 
River southwardly and westwardly to the high grounds which 
swept in a sort of crescent from Morris' house, at 161st street, 
to near the East River at about 90th street. 

The Heights. — The surface of the Island rose at intervals to 
considerable elevations, which were known under the general 
designation of Heights. Such were the Heights of Inclenberg, 
now Murray Hill, the highest point, at 41st street and Fifth 
avenue, being 88 feet above tide. 

Observatory Place. — The highest point being at 89th street 
and Fifth avenue, 108 feet above tide. 

Btoomingdale Heights, extending along the river from about 
112th street to Manhattanville, the highest point being at Hoog- 
land's Hill, about at 125th street and Twelfth avenue, 173 feet 
above tide. — Cozzen's Geological Map. And 



15 



Harlem Heights, extending from Manhattanville to near 
Kingsbridge, rising at the highest point near Fort Washington 
to 271 feet above tide. 

The most southerly point of Harlem Heights was known as 
the Point of Bocks. It was at about 127th street and Ninth 
avenue. Between the Point of Rocks and Kingsbridge were 
several heights among which was Morris Heights, about 250 
feet above tide at 161st street, where were Washington's head- 
quarters and his first entrenchments. 

While the region of Bloomingdale was a pleasantly wooded 
rolling country of charming landscape, well deserving its 
beautiful name, Harlem Heights was of a very different char- 
acter, a wild, rough, rocky and precipitous region, extending 
from Manhattanville to Kingsbridge. I here borrow the fine 
description of Mr. DeLancey, read before this Society: It rose 
from the Hudson and Harlem Rivers in rocky, forest clad preci- 
pices, ant i'Iji a hundred feet in height, which, for ivell nigh three- 
fourths of its circumference, were almost inaccessible. These 
natural buttresses, support an irregular pled n, the surface of which 
rises towards the centre, to an eminence two hundred, feet above 
the Hudson River, and to another on the side of the Harlem 
River of about equal height, between which lies the most level part 
of the entire region. — <2d Mag. Am. Hist., 67. 

This is the plain on the Harlem Heights, as the plains of 
Abraham are on the Heights of Quebec. This plain was in- 
terspersed with rocks which cropped out in ledges and ridges, 
and it contained higher heights and smaller hills. The sides 
and tops of these heights toward the Hudson River were thick- 
ly wooded, and known as The Woods. 

Between these hills and down the sides of these heights, 
were smaller valleys with little rivulets leading down to the 
river, and terminating in the small plains or dales which con- 
stituted its low marginal shore at the base of the heights. 
This part of the island was a natural fortress, and for that 
reason, was chosen by Washington as the place where he 
intended to form lines and make our grand stand on the de- 
fensive (Jay, 51), the ground being naturally strong and easy 
to he strengthened by fortifications. General Heath, with his 
division, was engaged fortifying his position at Kingsbridge. 



16 

Below his lines, there were at the time of the battle, no in- 
trenchments except some beginnings of a few days' work at 
about 161st street, and two or three redoubts between 153d 
street toward the North river and 158th street on Harlem river. 
With only such exceptions, these naturally fortified Harlem 
Heights lay, distinguished from their primeval condition only 
by the buildings, farms, fields and fences of the few inhabi- 
tants sparsely scattered along the roads. The Avhole island 
between Kingsbridge and Canal street, was a purely agricul- 
tural region, with farms, and orchards, and wheat, and buck- 
wheat fields, with a large proportion of woods and forests. 

matje david's fly, or vly. 

Hostilities began very early in the morning of the 16th, by a 
skirmish near the point of .Matje David's Fly. — Jay, 54. That 
point is the key to the localities of the battle. 

For more than 100 years before that time, that was a well- 
known landmark, referred to in patents, deed-;, surveys and 
Acts of the Legislature, and laid down with precision by ac- 
tual survey at the waterside, at the base of high grounds which 
declined towards the Hudson river. It was a meadow, on the 
marginal shore of the Hudson river, on the southside of Har- 
lem Cove, not a mnr&Jiy streamlet which, rose in the plain and 
emptied its waters into the East river. Fly is a contraction of 
the Dutch word, valei, meadow. 

In the two Nichol's patents of May and October, 1668, and 
in the Dongan patent of March, 1686, it is called The Round 
Meadow near or adjoining to the Hudson's river. 

In the report of the State Commissioners for riving the Har- 
lem line, May 30th, 1774, the line is laid down as beginning 
on the east side of the Hudson rirer, on the south side of the bay, 
lying before a certain piece of meadow commonly Tcnown by the 
name of the Hound Meadow or Matje David's Fly. In the Act of 
the Legislature of April, 1775, the line is adopted in the same 
words, as surveyed by Francis Marschalk in the presence of the 
Commissioners. Adrian Hoogland's farm lay along the river 
bank from about 107th street to the Harlem line, at Matje 
David's Fly. His executors conveyed it to Nicholas Depeyster 
in 1774, describing it as beginning on the east side of the Hudson 



17 

rider, at a place commonly called Matje David's Fly, and run- 
ning thence /war a due south course, somewhat easterly, as the 
fence now stands, about 31 chains, tlien (around the farm to 1 07tli 
street, by a great number of courses) to the hunks of the Hudson 
river, then along the said river to Matje David's Fly, the place of 
beginning on the river bank at Manhattanville. 

There was then a new road laid out in 1774-5, by law, 
from the Kingsbridge road, near the Point of Rocks, to the Fly 
continuing the Harlem Lane to the Hudson river side, where 
at the time of this battle, it probably connected with the farm- 
road through Adrian Hoogland's farm to his house at about 
115th street, where it connected with the Bloomingdale road, 
of which it was probably made a continuation at a later period 
when that road was extended to the Kingsbridge road at Brad- 
hurst's place. This new road is probably referred to by Wash 
ington in Ins letter to Heath, daied August 22d, 177G, where 
he says : There is a road out of Harlem fat lands, that leads 
tip to the Mils, &c. 

Between 106th and 123d streets, were the high grounds of 
the Vandewater and Hoogland farms, originally one farm, 
being sometimes called Vandewater Heights and Hoogland 
Heights, extending up to Matje David's Fly. Hoogland 
Heights were separated from Harlem Heights by a valley de- 
scending from the 11th avenue to the Hudson river on one 
side, and to the 8th avenue on the other. The high grounds 
each side of it, were about 300 to 400 yards apart, and com- 
manded large panoramic views It was often called a hollow 
way. There were other such valleys. The valley of Canal 
street was one, Olendenning valley, running from about 100th 
street and 8th avenue to Striker's Bay, was another. There was 
another at about 154th to 158th street, through which a stream 
made of several small streams, found its way in a winding 
descent, and emptied into the river about the Audubon Park at 
155th and 156th streets, draining the water shed west of 10th 
avenue, and there were others further up. At the base of the 
wooded heights along the shore was a narrow marginal level 
shore, made by the wash and debris of the hillsides and valleys, 
from a few feet to a few rods wide. At Matje David's Fly. the 



18 

Fly or meadow on the shore was in a round form, and took 
the name of the Round Meadow. It was several acres in 
extent. There was a Matje David, a member of the Dutch 
Church, in 1G8<>, from whom, probably, the Fly took its name. 
as her property. 

THE EVACUATION OF THE CITY, 

was a necessary consequence of the retreat from Long Island. 
General Washington, in a letter to Patrick Henry, Governor of 
Virginia, says: Our retreat from Long Island under the peculiar 
circumstances we then labored, became an act of prudence and 
necessity, and the evacuation of New York was a consequence re- 
sulting from the oilier. II was a military necessity. For some 
days before the evacuation the American Army was on New- 
York Island in three divisions; the right under Putnam with 
rive brigades held the city; the centre under Spencer and 
Greene, with six brigades, was at Stuyvesant's Cove, Kip's 
I Jay, Turtle Bay and Horen's Hook, and the left consisted of 
two brigades, and was at Kingsbridge, under Heath. The 
British Army was on Long Island, hovering over the city, and 
a Meet of British ships of war was in the harbor. A council of 
officers, on the 12th September, determined to abandon the 
city. Spencer and Greene, with their brigades then along the 
East river, were ordered to Harlem Heights, and Putman was 
ordered to evacuate the city, and to join them on the Heights, 
where the Americans intended to form lines, and to make our 
grand stand. — Jay, 51. 

On the 4th of September, the British evacuated Blackwell s 
Island and the other Islands, and the Americans immediately 
occupied Blackwell's Island in force, and so strongly that the 
British outposts, on the main shore of Long Island, were ex- 
posed to a continual tire which their great battery at Ilallett's 
Point could not silence. On the 8th, after a desperate attack 
and a wholly unexpected and obstinate resistance, the English 
dislodged the Americans from all the Islands. — 1 Mag. Am. 
Hist., 35. 

Washington had directed lines of light breastworks to be 
hastily thrown up along the shore at Kip's Bay. They were 



19 

manned by a brigade of new levies, and commanded by only 
a State Brigadier. It would be difficult to perceive why such 
fortifications, with such a force, were thus placed, were it not 
quite certain that Washington had no thought that the British 
intended to land at that place. 

The object of Howe, however, was to land first at Kip's Bay 
a sufficient force to cut off Putnam's retreat, and afterwards 
to take possession of Harlem Heights. The escape of Putnam 
to Harlem Heights, by strengthening the force on the heights, 
deranged the plans of Howe, and prevented his occupying the 
heights, below Heath. The battle of Harlem Heights, unex- 
pected and decisive, induced him soon to throw his forces into 
Westchester County, with a view to cut off Heath from the 
mainland, capture his position, and thus secure a pre-emptive 
right to the passes of the Highlands, to the interior of this 
State, and to the Eastern States, and possibly to end the war 
by capturing the army under Washington. 

THE CANNONADING AT KIP'S BAY, AND THE LANDING OF THE 
BRITISH TROOPS. 

On the morning of Sunday, the 15th, the cannonading by 
the British ships gave notice of their intention to land on the 
Island of New York, and Putnam immediately commenced 
his hurried retreat to unite with the forces under Washington, 
at Harlem Heights. He was accompanied and encumbered by 
many citizens, with their baggage. The retreat was covered 
by Colonel Sargeant's Brigade, forming the rear of the retreat 
ing column. This retreat was covered by Colonel Small- 
wood's regiment, of Maryland Regulars, stationed on the high 
ground by McGowan's Pass, having that pass in their rear. — 
Jay, 76. 

The British General had given indications of landing at 
Stuyvesant's Cove, at Turtle Bay, at Horen's Hook, at Harlem. 
at Morrisania, and upon the Hellgate Islands, with a view Id 
weaken the Americans by distracting their attention, dividing 
their forces, and misleading them. Major Baurmeister, of 
the German troops, says: This morning, 15$., <it 7 o'clock, the 
man-of-war " Renomme," of iO guns, sailed out of the feet with 



20 

two frigates, the " Repulse " and " Pearl," each of 32 guns, up 
the North River, and anchored above Bloomingdale. The vessels, 
on sailing by, fired whole broadsides on the shore of the City of 
New Fork, on account of which the City, with Eort Bunker Hill, 
was deserted by the Americans. I Mag. Am. Hist. 37, Howe says: 
this was done to draw the enemy's attention on that side, and the 
first division of troops, consisting of the Eighth Infantry, the 
British, reserve, the Hessian Grenadiers and Chasseurs, under 
the command of Lieutenant- General Clinton, having with him 
Earl Cornwallis, Major-General Vaughan, Brigadier- General 
Leslie and Colonel Donop, embarked at the head of Newtown 
('reck, and landed about noon upon NewYork Island, about three 
miles from the town, at a place called Kep's Bay, under the fire 
of two forty gun ships and three frigates. * * *i * The 
rebeh had troops in their works round Kep's Bay, but their atten- 
tion being engaged in expectation of the King's troops landing at 
sf'ii/r, sin/I Cove, at Horen's Hook, and at Harlem, which they 
had reason to conclude, Kep's Bay became only a secondary object 
of their care. The fire of the shipping being so well directed, and 
so incessant the enemy could not remain in their /rocks, and the 
descent was made without the least opposition. — Jay, 75. 

General Washington says: The enemy, to the amount of three 
or four thousand, had marched to the river and were embarked 
for Bam or Mbntressor's Island, where numbers of them were 
encamped. I proceeded to Harlem, where it was supposed, or at 
Mbrrisaniq, opposite, the principal attempt to land would be 
made. — Jay, 40. 

The landing was finally made at Kip's Bay, which was un- 
expected by the Americans, and was a surprise, that point be- 
ing least prepared to resist them. 

The landing was made under a most severe and heavy can- 
nonading from the live men-of-war lying in the East River, 
close in with our shore, distant but about fifty rods (Silliman) 
kept up to scour the grounds and cover the landing of their 
troops between Turtle Bay and the City, where light breast- 
works had been thrown up to oppose them. The statement ol 
General Howe was true, that under a fire so well directed and 
incessant, the American troops could not remain in their 



21 

works, much less could they withstand it outside their works, 
while the cannon halls and grape-shot were scouring the 
-rounds. 

This severe cannonading on our lines was kept up for " some 
hours," says Colonel Humphreys. The Hessian Major Baur- 
meister, says three hours, and Colonel Nicholas Fish, then a 
Major, says: A cannonading from the ships began, which far ex- 
ceeded my ideas, and which served, to infuse a panic through the 
whole of our troops. — Jay, 58. The cannonade from the men- 
of-war was a new experience to them. 

THE PANIC. 

Especially was this so with the Connecticut brigade, who 
were mostly new levies, and badly commanded, and, unfor- 
tunately, were posted upon the left where the enemy landed 
without the least opposition. — Jay, 58. Nothing is so conta- 
gious as a panic, and it immediately infected those on the 
right, officers as trill as men, insomuch 'hat it magnified /he num- 
ber of the enemy to twice the reality. The first company or two 
of the British soldiers which landed— Captain Beatty of the 
Maryland line; says there were 150 of them that first landed, — 
Jay, 63, — marched up the landing place with the tread of 
British veterans, and thousands more from the fleet of 84 flat 
bottomed boats, paraded in crescent form, were there to follow 
in their footsteps, while about three times as many more 
were near, and ready to land. This struck these raw troops 
with surprise, and soldiers and officers refused to meet them, 
and fled. It is well characterized by Major Fish, as a panic 
through the whole of our troops at that landing. But for this 
panic, the Americans might have opened fire upon the British, 
which could hardly have failed to bring on a most useless, 
bloody and disastrous battle. 

Napoleon said that Waterloo was lost by a panic. After 
the Battle of the Nations, at Leipsic, the French army, under 
Macdonald and Poniatowski, veterans of the great victories of 
Napoleon, tied like sheep, and in their panic plunged into the 
river, and thousands of those panic stricken braves, including 
the Prince himself, were drowned. Panic is not cowardice. 



22 

Panic is an inexplicable sympathetic infirmity of animated 
nature. 

The behavior of the troops at that time, in declining to face 
that fearful cannonade, and in retreating as they did, although 
confronted by a very small force actually landed, has often 
been characterized as an act of cowardice, but not without in- 
justice; no one could justify them, had they stood their ground 
and fallen in so useless an exhibition of foolhardy, animal 
courage— courage without glory — if, indeed, the army should 
not be captured. As it was, Major Chapman and a few others 
were killed, and others wounded, and Colonel Samuel Sclden 
and brigade-Major Wyllys and others, were taken prisoners. 
Such seems to have been the judgment of the cool and discreel 
General Heath, at the time. He says: Here the Americans, we 
are sorry to say, did not behave well. * * * * But several 
things nm 1/ hare weight here. The wounds received on Long 
Island ir< re yet bleeding, and the officers, if not the men, knew the 
City was not to be defended (Jay, 73), and General George 
Clinton says, in his letter to the New York Convention, with- 
out vituperation: The enemy landed under rarer <f a very heavy 
cannonade from their shipping; our lines were but thinly 
manned, as they were intended only to secure a retreat to the rear 
of our army, ami unfortunately, by suc7i troops as were so little 
disposed to stand in the way of grape-shot, that the main body of 
fin in nl must instantly retreated, nay fed, without ilie possibility of 
rallying than. — Jay, 51; and in his Letter to Dr. Tappen, he 
says simply: We had but a few men there; those, indent, did not 
behave well. — Jay, 53. The same men fought gallantly the 
next day on Harlem Heights. — Jay, 67 and 69. 

Washington, fearing that the British might take possession 
of Harlem Plains, as they might do from the Islands, and cut 
off his retreat to the Harlem Heights, immediately retreated 
across the Island to Harlem Heights (Jay, 40) to join the 
troops already there, who had begun to intrench at 161st 
street. There he encamped with the main body of the army. 

THE MARCH OF THE BRITISH TROOPS. 

The first division of the British army, instead of hurrying for 



23 

ward across the Island by the Kip's Bay Road to intercept Put- 
nam, tooJcposton (he commanding height of Inclenberg. Dutch. 
Engeland Berg, (English Hill), (now called Murray Hill) ap- 
parently wailing for the landing of the remaining troops. 
Here the officers took their deliberate and enjoyable luncheon 
with the patriotic Mrs. Murray. While ascending the heights 
of Inclenberg, our troops harrassed them, and the British 
Major-General Yauglian was wounded, and as the Hessians 
were moving towards the City, they fell in with a body of 
Americans retiring from Stuyvesant's Cove, said to have 
been commanded by Major Aaron Burr. Some firing ensued, 
and a small number were killed and wounded on each side. 
As soon as the second division of the British army, which con- 
sisted of 8 or 10 thousand, all under the command of Lieuten- 
ant-General Earl Percy, was landed and could support those 
posted on the heights of Inclenberg, they moved on up the 
straight Middle Road, hoping to intercept Putnam, and to 
capture a corps of Americans which they discovered three 
miles distant towards Kmgsbridge, having 3fcGowan's Pa** in 
their rear.— Jay, 76. This was Colonel Smallwood's- regiment 
of Maryland Regulars, which had been ordered to march down 
towards New York to cover the retreat and to defend the baggage, 
with directions to take possession of an advantageous eminence 
near the enemy, on the main road. There they remained under 
arms, the best part of the day, till the brigade commanded by Sar- 
geant came in with the baggage, who were the last troops to come 
m._ Jay, 62. The British, seeing that they had failed to in- 
tercept Putnam, divided their main body into two colums, one 
filing off to the North River, endeavored to flank and surround 
Smallwood's corps, while the other apparently kept on further 
up Bloomingdale Heights. Smallwood had orders to retreat 
in good order if it should be necessary, which he did in time, 
on the approach of the British, getting within the lines a little 
after dusk.— Jay, 62. In the words of General Howe, they im- 
mediately retired to the main body of their army, upon Morns' 
Heights. — Jay, 76. 

The Americans, under Putnam, barely escaped being cap- 
tured by the British. The last regiment was fired upon and 



24 

its Colonel killed, just at the junction of the Bloomingdale 
Road with the Kingsbridge Road, where the Americans 

wheeled to the left, and where the British force sent to cap- 
ture Sniallwood's detachment, was seen coming down on their 
right. Ten minutes after Putnam passed, the British line was 
extended to the Hudson River, completing their line from 
Horen's Hook on the East River, at 90th street, to just above 
Bloomingdale on the Hudson River, with their camp on the 
Bloomingdale Heights, extending from McOowaus and the Black 
Horse, to the North River. — Jay, 52. 

Colonel Humphrey says that General Putnam's division 
joined the army after dark on the Heights of Harlan, having 
been given up as lost by their friends. That night, says he, 
our soldiers, excessively fatigued by the sultry march of the day. 
their clothes wet by a severe shower of rain towards the evening, 
their blood chilled by the cold wind that produced a suddt n change 
in ih, li mperature of the air, and their hearts sunk within them 
l>!l the loss of baggage, artillery and works in which they had been 
taught to place great confidence, lag upon their arms, covered 
only by the clouds of an uncomfortable sky. * * * * The 
regiments that laid been least exposed to fatigut that pug, fur- 
nished the necessary picquets to secure the army from surprise. — 
Humphrey, 138. 

THE POSITIONS OF THE TWO ARMIES. 

On these Harlem Heights made for defence, the army, un- 
der Washington, consisting of about 8,000 effective men, many 
of them new levies, besides the sick and wounded, was en- 
camped on the night before the battle of September Kith, dis- 
pirited and discouraged by the recent military events. Wash 
ington rarely wrote with so much discouragement as at this 
time, lie felt that his militia could not be relied on, and were 
at best a temporary force. The Brisish army, under Howe, 
consisting of a larger number of veteran British Regulars, 
fresh from rest after victory, and elated with the possession of 
the City and of the Island to above the 8th milestone, lay in 
the charming region of Bloomingdale, below and upon Bloom* 
inffdale Heights. The evacuation of the City was a hurried 



25 

retreat, with the loss of baggage and cannon, and the move- 
ments of the British were a rapid pursuit. The American ar- 
my had reached its destination, and was wholly on Harlem 
Heights, without any serious encounter, and with hut trifling 
loss, and at a late hour when they went to rest, the two armies 
with their respective pickets placed on the sides of the Man- 
hattanville Valley, were in position, in force, face to face, af- 
ter the labors, the mortifications, the disappointments and 
chagrins of that weary and eventful day. In plain sight of 
both lines of pickets, Harlem Plains was spread out on the 
east, its fields covered with the fruits and harvests of early 
autumn. 

The position of the armies at this time is a great fact about 
which there is no dispute, and it has a most important bearing 
in relation to the place of the battle. It controls many others. 
Where the American army was, there it was attacked, and 
there it was successfully defended. 

General Washington's headquarters was the Morris House, 
at 161st street. His army was, of course, in front of him. 
The picket lines of his army extended along the eastern brow 
of the heights, overlooking the plains, to the Point of Rocks, 
and thence along the heights overlooking the Manhattanville 
valley, to the Hudson River, at Matje David's Fly. The 
" Paint of Rocks " which skirted the road leading to Kingsbridge 
was our most advanced picket toward New York. — Jay, 75. 

Our army consisted of the reserve, the main body and the 
advanced guard, all in front of headquarters. The reserve 
would be encamped nearest headquarters. The main body 
lay about one-quarter to one-third of a mile further south, and 
the advanced guard of two brigades, commanded by General 
Greene, lay still further down in the woods (Sauthier's Map), 
on the western portion of the heights. — Jay, 55-66. General 
George Clinton says : Our army lay at Colonel Morris s, and so 
southward to near the hollow-way which runs across from Harlem 
Flat to the North River, at Matje David's Fly, about half tcay 
between which two places our lines run across to the river, which, 
indeed, at that time, were only begun, but are noio (2lst) in a very 
defensible state. — Jay, 53. These entrenchments were thrown 
up during the day by Colonel Silliman's entrenching brigades. 



26 



Washington's army thus occupied about a mile and a half 
north and south. The enemy s main army was encamped 
between 1th and 8th milestones. — Jay, 65, 97th and 115th streets. 
General Hoice's headquarters at one Mr. Apthorp's. — Jay, 65. 
The two headquarters were three miles apart. Half way 
between them was the Manhattanville valley. Lieutenant 
Harris, of the 5th British foot, say s: After landing at New York, 
we drove the Americans into their tcorks beyond the 8th milestone 
from New York, and thus got possession of the best part of the 
Island. We took post opposite to them, and placed our pickets. — 
Jay, 79. This was on the 15th. The British had their pickets 
along the brow of the heights, south of Harlem Plains, to the 
Bloomingdale Heights and Hogeland Heights, on the North 
Rive!-. 

Above Howe's headquarters was his army, 10,000 or 12,000 
strong, in two columns, one British and the other German 
troops. Such an army could not be arranged in less extent 
than the smaller army of Washington — a mile and a half — and 
most probably it reached to about 115th street with its reserve 
and main body; and the Van, or advanced guard, composed 
of Donop's Yagers and some English troops, must have reached 
to about 120th street, and the extreme Van, being Leslie's 
British Light Infantry, would be a little further up, while 
their pickets were on the southwestern brow of that hollow- 
way, Graydon says, only separated from the American pickets 
by a valley a few hundred yards over. — Jay, 75. General Mc- 
Dougall's letter to the convention, 7th Oct., 1876, says the 
same, 1 Rev. Papers, 487. 

On the morning of the 16th, Colonel Silliman, with a force 
of 1,000 officers and men, with at least another brigade, com- 
menced lines of entrenchments, and before night had thrown 
up lines across the Island at about 153d street, where there 
were already three redoubts placed at intervals across the 
Island. — Jay, 57. Sauthier's Map. 

the morning skirmish "near the point op 
matje david's fly." 
At early dawn on the morning of the 16th, there was a 
skirmish between small portions of the two armies, in which 



2? 

the American party was compelled to retreat a long distance 
before a much superior force. The impetuous General Leslie, 
whose light infantry was the van of the British army, prob- 
ably supposed, from the events of the last few days, that they 
had been pursuing not merely a retreating force, but a timid, 
cowardly and flying enemy, and that an early and rapid move- 
ment might strike a successful blow. He accordingly, with- 
out orders and without any proper arrangements for support, 
or for possible retreat, set out before daybreak with a battalion 
of light infantry— 400 men — to endeavor to surprise and cap- 
ture the American advance guard, which lay in the woods at 
about 133d street to 140th street and Eleventh avenue. Before 
reaching them, however, he encountered the brave Colonel 
Knowlton, who, with his rangers, had been sent by General 
Washington at that early hour, as a reconnoitring party to gain 
intelligence, if possible, of the disjwsition of the enemy (Jay, 40), 
and to go and take the enemy's advanced guard, Captain Brown, 
—Jay, 60. 

Colonel Knowlton set out from his camp near headquarters 
just before day (4 or 5 a. m.) with 120 picked men, and proba- 
bly took the route of the unobstructed low shore of the river 
to below Matje David's Fly, and opposite the left flank of the 
English advanced guard, say about 120th street, where he in- 
tended to mount up Hogeland's or Vandewater's Heights and 
cut off that detachment of the enemy. The British General, 
apparently, determined to take the same course also, by the 
descent of the same heights, to the river — both parties proba- 
bly supposing that the woods that covered all those heights 
along the shore, would protect them from observation on their 
secret expedition — the Americans relying upon the fancied se- 
curity of the British— and the British trusting to the imagi- 
nary timidity of the Americans. The two parties discovered 
each other at the same time at daybreak, and took the order of 
battle without hesitation, and the British marched up within 
six rods of the Americans. After a brief engagement, the 
British — being more than three to one of the rangers — made a 
movement to outflank and surround them, when Knowlton, 
after having given them eight rounds apiece, ordered a retreat 
and took to the woods in good order, to come in for support. 



28 

With a seeming intention of retreating to the main body, he 
retired into the interior part of the woods (Jay, 80), closely 
pursued by the British, also in the woods. 

Lieutenant Harris, of the 5th British foot, says: After 
landing on York Island we drove the Americans (Putnam's divi- 
sion) into their ww'ks beyond the eighth milestone from New York, 
and thus got ]Jossession of the best half of the Island. We took 
post opposite to them, and placed our picquets. — Jay, 79. 

On the lGth the light infantry (Leslie) were sent out to dislodge 
a party of the enemy, which had taken possession of a wood on 
the left of the British. — Stewart, Jay, 78. 

On the morning of the 16th September, a detachment teas sent 
out from tJie main body of the Americans, to a icood facing the 
left flank of the English army. Three companies of our light in- 
fantry were despatched to dislodge them, tlie enemy with a seeming 
intention of retreating to the main body, retired into the interior 
part of the woods. — Stedman, Jay, 80. The Hessian account 
corresponds in substance — correcting the German rendering of 
proper names. 

On the 16th September, quite a brisk fight took place on York 
Island; the Americans on the morning of this day sent from their 
camp a strong detachment which came out of the woods and at- 
tacked our left wing. * * General Leslie, who was in com- 
mand of the British, soon encountered a severe resistance. * * 
Colonel Van Donop received orders to move up to their support. 
He moved up with his Yagers. The Yagers who swarmed for- 
ward, soon came to a hot contest on Hoyland's (Hogeland's) Hill. 
The Americans retired. — Hessian account, Jay, 81, 82. Hoge- 
land's Hill was near the shore near the point of Matje David's 
Fly. The English Light Infantry advanced too quickly on the 
retreat of the enemy, and at Bruckland Hill (Hogeland Hill) 
fell into an ambuscade, &c. — Baurmeister, Jay, 82. 

On the 16th, in tlie morning, a large party of the enemy having 
passed un der cover of the woods near to the advanced post of the ar- 
my, by way ofVandewater's Heights, the second and third battalion 
of light infantry, supported by the 4%d regiment, pushed forward 
and drove them back to their entrenchments. — General Howe, 
Jay, 77. Their nearest entrenchments at that time were at head - 
quarters at lGlst street, a mile and a half or two miles distant. 



29 

The enemy finally supposed that Knowlton's retreat was in- 
tended to draw them into an ambuscade of 3,000 men, in the 
woods, Hessian account, Jay, 81, referring to our advance 
guard under Greene, which they afterwards encountered. 

We have thus from three high British authorities, in language 
substantially alike, a statement of the morning affair between 
Knowlton and Leslie, on the left wing of tlie British advanced 
post. 

The Americans, on the morning of this day sent from their 
camp a strong detachment, which came out of the wood and at- 
tacked our left icing.— Hessian account, Jay, 81. 

An officer of Knowlton's rangers, probably Captain Brown, 
gives, from actual participation, the American account of the 
unsuccessful attack by Knowlton on the left wing of the ene- 
my's advanced post. 

On Monday morning the General ordered us to go and take the 
enemy's advanced guard. Accordingly, we set out just before day 
and found wliere they were. At daybreak we were discovered by 
the enemy who were 400 strong, and we were 120. They marched 
up within six rods of us, and then formed to give us battle, which 
we were ready for, and Colonel Knoidton gave orders to fire, 
which we did, and stood theirs till we perceived they were getting 
their flank guards round us. After giving them eight rounds 
apiece the Colonel gave orders for retreating, which we performed 
very well, without the loss of a single man while retreating. * 
We retreated tioo miles and a half, and then made a stand and 
sent off for a r : e-inj "or ■cement. —Jay, 60. 

General Reed, who had gone down and met Knowlton's 
party, says of the retreat: The enemy advanced upon us very 
fast. I had not quitted a house five minutes before they were in 
possession of it. Finding how things icere going, I went " over " 
to the General to get some support for the brave fellows who had 
behaved so well. By the time I got to him tJie enemy appeared in 
open view, and in the most insulting manner sounded their bugle 
horns, as is usual after a fox chase. — Jay, 48. 

Lewis Morris, Jr., gives substantially the same account of 
this morning affair of Knowlton, placing the attack upon the 
Rangers as on a height a little to the southwest of Dayes's 
Tavern, which would be on the left flank or wing of the 



30 

British van or advanced guard, on Hogeland's or Vandewa- 
ter's Height — Jay, 56. 

This is the account of the engagement soon after day-break, 
between Leslie and Knowlton, from which Knowlton retreated 
to headquarters for re-inforcement. This early morning 
skirmish between Knowlton and Leslie, near the point of 
Matje David's Fly, was no part of the Battle of Harlem 
Heights. In it the Americans were defeated. It was an un- 
fortunate affair, to be concealed rather than to be dwelt upon, 
and we accordingly find hardly a mention of its details, except 
in the letter of an officer, doubtless Captain Brown, Knowl- 
ton's successor, to his friend in New London. — Jay, 60. The 
place of that skirmish is nowhere mentioned, except in Gen- 
eral Clinton's letter to Dr. Tappen, Jay, 53, which letter con- 
tains no details of the skirmish in the morning, but is mainly 
devoted to the battle several hours later in the day, in which 
Knowlton was killed. 

THE BATTLE OF THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY, CALLED THE 
"ACTION" OR "BATTLE." 

We come now to the principal battle of the clay, the Battle 
of II* trlem Heights, which began at about eleven o'clock in the 
morning, and ended about 3 p. m. There were at that time 
no fortifications across the heights below Morris' House, except 
three little redoubts in about a mile, Jay, 57, from about 153d 
street, North River, to about 158th street, at Macomb's Dam, 
Harlem River. Before Washington had occupied Morris' 
House as headquarters, the troops already there had begun to 
throw up entrenchments above that house ; Avhen it became 
headquarters those entrenchments were neglected as of no 
present utility, and on the morning of the 16th, the brigades 
of which Colonel Silliman's command was a part, were or- 
dered to connect those redoubts and strengthen them by en- 
trenchments quite across the Island, about a quarter to a third 
of a mile below headquarters and about half a mile further 
down, say about 135th to 140th street; in the woods ice had two 
other brigades lying as an advanced guard, Jay, 57, commanded 
by General Greene.— Jay, 66. This is where the action first 
bega n, which was called the Battle of Harlem Heights. Note 1. 



31 

In the American general orders after the battle, the same 
day, the arrangement for the night upon the heights commanding 
the hollow-way from the North River to the main road leading 
from New York to Kingsbridge, General Clinton teas ordered to 
form next to the North Rver, and extend to the left. General 
Scott next to Clinton on the left, and Colonel Buyer next to Scott. 
— Jay, 65. General Clinton says : That night I commanded the 
right wing of our advanced party, o r picket, on the ground the 
action first began, where a party of about a thousand came and at- 
tacked our advanced post, Greene, Jay, b5—ichere the enemy next 
day, at Harlem Heights, flushed with the successes of the day be- 
fore, approached and attacked our lines where I had the honor to 
command, Greene, Jay, 66, and it was to our advanced post that 
his excellency sent and ordered a timely retreat, Greene, Jay, 56, 
when the British rout became general. — Jay, 68. 

General Washington, in his letter to Congress, dated at 
Morris' House, September 18th, says: About the time of the 
post's departure with my letter, the enemy appeared in several 
large bodies upon the plains, about Z% miles from here. I rode 
down to our advanced posts to put matters in a proper situation 
if the enemy should attempt to come on. Wlien I arrived there 
I heard firing, which I teas informed was between a party of our 
Rangers, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Knowlton, 
and an advanced party of the enemy. — Jay, 41. 

In his letter to the New York Convention, dated the 23d, he 
describes the same events as follows: On Monday morning 
last several parties of the enemy appeared on the high ground 
opposite to our heights, and some skirmishing had happened 
between our troops and those of the enemy. — Jay, 44. 

He thus, in one letter, calls the locality tlie plains about 2% 
miles from here, and in the other he calls it the high ground 
opposite to our heights, evidently meaning by the plains about 2% 
miles from here, not Harlem Plains, but the plains (the open 
grounds) on the high ground of Bloomingdale Heights, below 
Manhattanville hollow — Bloomingdale Heights, opposite to 
Harlem Heights. From Colonel Silliman's letter, it is appar- 
ent that General Washington, when he rode down to put matters 
in a proper situation in case the enemy should attempt to come on 
(Jay, 41), had ordered under arms our brigades, not only those 



32 

commanded by Sillinian, but the two brigades lying half a 
mile below in the woods, as an advanced guard, commanded by 
General Greene, and directed them to be ready to resist any 
attack which should be made. 

The enemy did not then attempt to come on, and General 
Washington returned to headquarters. Silliman's brigades then 
grounded their arms and took spades and shovels and went to 
work. — Jay, 57. They, Silliman's brigades, were not called to 
arms again, but were throwing earth from the new trenches, 
during the action, with an alacrity that indicated a determination 
to defend them. — Humphrey, 143. The enemy on Blooming- 
dale Heights had probably heard the firing between Knowlton 
and Leslie, and were now waiting to learn what had become 
of Leslie with his detachment of light troops, which had 
disappeared, and was then silently pursuing Knowlton through 
the woods on his way back to headquarters for a reinforce- 
ment. At ten or eleven o'clock they may well have heard the 
bugle horn of Leslie and the firing at the feint, and the unfor- 
tunate flank attack in the woods at about 153d street to 158th 
street. Then they immediately came on, apparently to the 
rescue of Leslie, and a little before twelve o'clock encountered 
the advanced guard of two brigades under Greene lying in the 
woods at about 135th to 140th streets, and began a heavy fire 
on these two brigades, who, according to the directions of 
Washington, maintained the fire obstinately for some time. 
Then they were reinforced by several regiments, and the fire con- 
tinued very heavy from musketry and from field pieces about two 
hours. — Jay, 57. General Clinton says tbat the enemy received 
a very considerable reinforcement and made their second stand; 
our people also had received a considerable reinforcement, and at 
this place a very brisk action commenced, which continued for 
near two hours. — Jay, 54. 

Thence we drove the enemy 200 paces south east, when they 
rallied. We then drove them about 400 paces, probably to 
our advanced guard then engaged with the enemy in the 
woods, when came on the grand fight of several hours between 
the two armies, both increased by repeated reinforcements to 
several thousand on a side, in a buckwheat field on the top of 
a hill on Bradhurst's farm, whence they retreated the third 
time towards their lines, we pursuing till we were called 



33 

off because of the bad make of the ground and the approach 
of a large body of the enemy just behind the brow of Bloom- 
ing-dale Heights. — Jay, 52. 

Knowlton, as I have said, came in to camp, made a report 
to "Washington and asked for a reinforcement. The enemy's 
light troops soon made their appearance. One hundred of 
them coming out of the woods on the high grounds opposite the 
Americans' camp (Jay, 40), blowing their bugle horn in 
notes of triumph or bravado, and took post on the brow of the 
western heights at the side of the 158th street hollow-way, 
west of Eleventh avenue, leaving three hundred of their party 
concealed in the woods in their rear. 

Adjutant-General Reed had ridden down to our advanced 
guard to see the condition of things, and he went over to head- 
quarters and begged Washington to reinforce Knowlton. 
Washington, after a little hesitation, complied with the double 
request of Reed and Knowlton, and directed Reed to accom- 
pany the reinforced party, principally Southern troops, com- 
manded by the brave Major Leitch. Washington was.to make 
a feint of attacking the British in front from the north, while 
he gave Leitch and Knowlton orders to get in their rear, and 
surround and capture them. This was attempted. A depar- 
ture, however, from Washington's directions, brought on an 
unfortunate flank attack, instead of an attack in the rear. 

THE UNFORTUNATE FLANK ATTACK. 

It has been suggested by Mr. Dawson, that General Putnam 
was probably justly chargeable with this departure from the 
orders of General Washington. The proof is clear that it 
was an inferior officer, the impetuous and brave commander 
of the Virginia troops, that was guilty of that indiscretion 
which called for the pointed rebuke of General Washington 
after the battle, and was the cause of his positive order on the 
next day providing against such another occurrence, in which 
he says : The loss of the enemy yesterday, undoubtedly would 
hare been much greater if the orders of the Commander-in-Uhief 
had not, in some instance, been contradicted by some inferior 
officers, who, however well they may mean, ought not to presume 
to direct. It in therefore ordered that no officer commanding a 



34 

party, and having received orders from the Commander-in-Chief, 
depart from them without counter orders from the same author- 
ity. — Jay, 66. Adjutant-General Reed was to guide the party 
that was to reinforce Knowlton and Leitch. It was one party 
to cut off the retreat of the enemy, and not two parties to fall 
on his two flanks. Knowlton and Leitch were together. 
They fell near each other, and near where Knowlton was 
buried. The falling on the enemy's flank was -the great blun- 
der of the day. The party consisted of three companies of 
Virginia, Riflemen, and Colonel Knowlton, with his Rangt /w,who 
were directed by Washington to endeavor to get in the rear of 
the enemy while their attention should be attracted by a feint 
to attack them on their front. — Jay, 44-45. 

The enemy consisted of two portions. The smaller portion, 
about 100, in open view, were probably those who had blown 
the hunter's horn, and the other, about 300, lay concealed. It 
is not unlikely that Major Leitch led the party far enough 
down to cut off the retreat of the smaller and exposed party, 
and attempted to do so, by Avhich premature movement he 
came upon the flank of the enemy's right flank, posted out of 
our sight on lower ground (Johnston, 254, note 1), instead of 
the rear of the larger party of 300 concealed in the woods, 
which immediately changed front and gave them an unex- 
pected and hot reception, to which Leitch and Knowlton fell 
victims. A movement was made by the feint which diverted 
the Virginia regiment and caused it to disobey its orders and 
attack the enemy on the flank. Adjutant-General Reed says: 
An unhappy movement was made by a regiment of ours which 
had been ordered to amuse them, wJiile those I icas with expected 
to take them in the rear, but being diverted by this, the Virginia 
regiment with which I was, went another course. Finding there 
was no stopping, I went with them the new way, and in a few 
minutes our brave fellows mounted up the rocks and attacked 
them. The Virginia-Major, Leitch, who went up first with me 
'teas wounded with three shot in less than three minutes. — Jay, 48. 
He stood the field with the greatest bravery till the third shot, when 
he was obliged to fall. — Jay, 62. 

Colonel Knowlton, about the same time, fell with a mortal 
wound. The loss of those two heroic officers may be consid- 



35 

ered as justly attributable to that departure from bis orders 
by Major Leitcb. Tbeir men under tbeir captains and subal- 
tern officers went in with characteristic bravery and spirit, 
maintained their ground and continued the engagement with the 
greatest resolution, driving the enemy first 200 paces and then 
400 paces as has been stated. Washington says: Finding that 
they wanted a support I advanced part of Colonel Griffith's and 
Colonel Bichardson's Maryland regiments, with some detachments 
from the Eastern regiments who were nearest the place of action. 
These troops charged the enemy with great intrepidity and drove 
them from the wood into the plain or open ground. 

Leitch and Knowlton fell within a few minutes of each 
other, almost at the feet of Adjutant-General Reed, who 
assisted Knowlton off his horse, and be repeats his heroic 
words as he fell. 

When gasping in the agonies of death all his inquiry was if we 
had drove the enemy. — Reed, Jay, 48. Captain Brown says: 
My poor colonel was shot just by my side; I took hold of him, 
asked him if he was badly wounded. He told me he icag, but says 
he, I do not value my life if we do but get the day. I then ordered 
two men to carry him off- * * Se seemed as unconcerned and 
calm as though nothing had happened to 7iim.—J&y, 60, 61. 
And Leitch received three balls through his body in less than 
three minutes. Tie stood the field with the greatest bravery till the 
third shot when lie was compelled to fall; after he fell he was in 
good spirits. — Jay, 62. Adjutant-General Reed mounted him 
(Leitch) on his horse and brought him of. In the spot where 
Knowlton fell, at least within four rods round him, lay 15 or 16 
of the enemy dead, with five or six of our own people. — Jay, 61. 
How heroically they intended to repair the blunder of that flank 
attack! Of the ten men which the Rangers lost in the whole 
action five or six fell within a few feet of where Knowlton 
was wounded, and 15 or 16 of the enemy, dead, lay there also. 
-Jay, 61. 

Knowlton was carried by two of his men to a neighboring 
redoubt, and there he was buried the next day with the honors 
of war. — Note 2. Mr. Dawson and Mr. Lossing agree within 
a short distance as to the place of his burial. Mr. Dawson 
says on 154th street, and Mr. Lossing on 156th street near the 



36 

Hudson River. Mr. Nelson Chase, a respectable lawyer of 
this city, who has resided for more than forty years in the 
Jurael House, formerly the Morris House, and who was on the 
most familiar terms with Colonel Burr while he resided there 
as the husband of Madame Jumel, says that Colonel Burr in- 
formed him that Kuowlton fell about 153d street and 11th 
avenue, and that he was buried in 150th street near 10th ave- 
nue, and that Knowlton's camp was quite near to Washing- 
ton's headquarters. Major David Henley was at that time 
Deputy-Adjutant-General, and must have had his quarters 
near the Commander-in-Chief, Major David Henley and Major 
Thomas Henley were brothers. The body of Thomas was 
taken to his brother's quarters and was, the next day, the 24th, 
buried from there by the side of Kuowlton, with military 
honors. — Heath, 60. Colonel Burr was one of the aids of 
General Putnam, and was doubtless in the battle. Note 3. 

After the loss of these officers the command was taken by 
General Putnam and General Greene with about 1,500 to 1,800 
men of their divisions, our whole force engaged being at that 
time probably 4,000 men — the enemy having a larger number, 
General George Clinton thought between 4,500 and 5,000 of 
their choicest troops. It was by the spirited conduct in gener- 
alship, activity and command, of Putnam and Greene and 
Reed, that the day was so signally and so beneficially saved to 
the American cause. — Jay, 50. Reed's horse was shot under 
him. — Jay, 50, Note 2. They behaved nobly. — Jay, 56, 67. 

An officer of the Maryland line the day after the battle 
says: Yesterday mom ing the Regulars came within half a mile 
of our lines (the Maryland lines) and made a stand. A few of 
our scouts who we're out attacked them and drove them off. In 
two hours after, 2,000 of them returned. General Beal sent out 
three companies of riflemen, under Major Hants, who attacked 
tin in. Immediately General Washington reinforced them with 
the remainder of our brigade, together with General Weeden's 
regiment from Virginia, Major Price's three independent com- 
panies, and one regiment of Rhode Islanders. Never did troops 
go to the field with more cheerfulness and alacrity, when there be- 
gan a heavy fire on botli sides. It continued about an hour when 
our brace Southern troops dislodged them from their posts. The 



37 

enemy rallied, our men beat them a second time. They rallied 
again, our troop* drove them a third time and were rushing on 
them, but the enemy had got on an eminence and our troops tcere 
ordered to retreat, the General considering there might be a large 
number of the enemy behind the hill concealed, which was the 
case.— Jay, 61. Captain Beatty, another Maryland officer, 
writes to his father: On Monday last the enemy thought to drive 
our troops farther, and sallied out and were attacked by Major 
Mantz with the three rifle companies of our batallion under Ms com- 
mand, and Major Price with three of the independent companies 
of Maryland troops and three other companies of the Maryland 
Flying Gamp, and a batallion of Virginians, and some Northern 
troops. The attack icas wry sharp on both sides for an hour 
and a half, then the enemy retreated a mile and a half to their 
lines. — Jay, 62. 

We now turn to other important original proofs as to the 
positions, purposes and operations of the two armies during 
this 16th day of September. 

On the morning of that day, before the battle, General 
Washington wrote to the President of Congress: We are now 
encamped with the main body of the army on the Heights of Har- 
lem, where I should hope the enemy would meet with a defeat in 
case of an attack, if the generality of our troops would behave with 
tolerable bravery. Buc experience, to my extreme affliction, has 
convinced me that this is rather to be wished for than expected.— 
Jay, 40. And on the 20th he wrote to General Schuyler, 
dated at " Colonel Roger Morris' ": The British army lies en- 
camped about 2 miles below us * * * * and we are putting 
ourselves in the best position of defence that time and circum- 
stances will admit of (Jay, 43), and General Knox says shortly 
after the battle : The grounds on which we now possess are strong. 
I think we shall defend them. If we don't, I hope God will pun- 
ish us in this world and the world to come if the fault is ours. — 
Jay 58. Washington evidently expected to be further pur- 
sued and attacked, and had chosen this strong position on Har- 
lem Heights where he might make a stand and hope to defeat 
any attack of the enemy. He had no thought himself of at- 
tacking. This fact sheds light upon the whole affair. It was 
throughout a defence. 



38 

THE PEN AND INK PLAN OP BATTLE. 

There is a rude pen and ink topographical sketch of the field 
of battle, extending from Washington's headquarters to the 
British picket line below Manhattanville on the parallel of 
Harlem Village about 123d to 125th street, made soon after 
the battle, and apparently by or under the dictation of General 
George Clinton.— See copy plan, Jay, G8. This is a most im- 
portant piece of evidence. It was furnished to John Sloss 
Hobart, who was then a member of the first New York State 
Convention, which sat in Harlem from July 29th to August 
29th, 1776, less than three weeks before the battle. He had 
also been a member of the four provincial Congresses of New 
York sitting in New York, and was subsequently a member 
of the State Convention for framing a constitution and was 
on the committee to prepare it. He was a Judge of the 
Supreme Court for 21 years, a member of the State Conven- 
tion for adopting the Constitution of the United States, a Sen- 
ator of the United States, and finally District Judge of the 
United States till his death. He was thus a man of the high- 
est respectability, of the most reliable character, and of much 
experience and intelligence in public affairs, and doubtless 
was familiar with the localities. Mr. Hobart gave this sketch 
to the Rev. Dr. Stiles, who was the next year appointed Presi- 
dent of Yale College, and was a great patriot and kept a jour- 
nal of public events.— Jay, 68-69. 

On that sketch the action is laid down as beginning near the 
Hudson River about the 10th milestone, and ending about the 
8th milestone. The milestones are marked on the plan. At 
that time the 8th milestone on the old road was on 125th street 
in the Village of Harlem, and the 10th milestone would be 
about two miles further up, say at about 164th street, a short 
distance above Washington's headquarters, where some in- 
trenchments were begun. There was another eighth milestone 
on the other road half a mile further down at about 115th 
street and 7th avenue, placed there because that road just be- 
low had run at right angles to the main road for about half a 
mile. As Judge Hobart, as member of the State Convention, 
had spent the previous month in Harlem Village where the 



39 

8th milestone stood on 125th street, it is probable that that 8th 
milestone was the one intended on the sketch, it being placed 
about on the parallel of Harlem Village. The buckwheat 
field, in which the hottest and much the largest part of the 
action was fought, is laid down on this sketch and was at 
about 145th street. The British, after one or two hours' hard 
fighting at that place broke and ran. — Jay, 59. They pre- 
tended to rally at an orchard at about 121st street and 9th 
avenue. As their ammunition was exhausted, the halt was 
only a pretence, and after a brief rally they fled across and up 
a hill to near their own lines (camps). There, Adjutant Reed 
and Colonel TiJghman called off our troops, a retreat being 
ordered by General Washington, who thought, as proved to 
be the fact, that a heavy British force was coming on over the 
Bloomingdale hills, threatening attack, which could hardly 
fail to lead to a general action for which he was then unpre- 
pared, especially as the ground was disadvantageous as well 
for fighting as for a retreat.— Jay, 52. The British being on 
the rising and high grounds of Bloomingdale Heights, the 
Americans, if they continued the pursuit, must charge up a 
hill with an exposed valley with rocky cliffs and narroAV 
passes in their rear. 

The American army, with the exception of Heath's troops 
at Kingsbridge, lay at Morris Heights and so southward to 
near Manhattan ville. There were no entrenchments south of 
Morris house at the time of the battle. At 161st street, there 
were entrenchments thrown up before Washington arrived 
there with the main army. During and after the battle on the 
same day entrenchments to connect and strengthen three little 
redoubts were commenced about 153d to 155th streets and 
completed by the 21st in a very defensible state. — Jay, 53. These 
entrenchments were where Colonel Silliman lay with his com- 
mand which was part of what he calls our Brigades. About 
half a mile below in the woods lay two other Brigades as an ad- 
vanced guard, these were under the command of General 
Greene. — Jay, 55 and 66. Colonel Silliman says under date 
of the 1 7th — Yesterday a little before noon, the time when by 
all accounts the main battle began, we heard a strong 
firing about half a mile below us, where we had two brigades lying 



40 

as an advanced guar J. The enemy, in a large body, advanced 
in the woods a little before 12 o'clock and began a Jieavy fire on 
those two brigades who maintained the fire obstinately for some 
time and then they were reinforced by several regiments and the 
fire continued very heavy from the musketry and the field pieces 
about two hours, in which time our people drove the regular* hack 
from post to post about a mile and a half and then left them.. 
— Jay, 57. This is a description of the whole main battle, 
with time and place, written on the spot the next day by one 
of the most reliable officers in the army, and it is not possible 
to doubt that the fighting of which he speaks was on Harlem 
Heights, within the American picket lines, Capt Gooch, of 
the Massachusetts line, confirms this account fully. — Jay, 59. 
This covers the time from a little before noon to three o'clock. 
What had been done before that ? 

General Clinton, says : On Monday morning the enemy at- 
tacked our advanced party commanded by Colonel Knowlton, 
near the point of Matje David's Fly. General Washington says : 
I heard a firing which I was informed was between, a party of 
our Rangers under the command of Lieutenant- Colonel Knowlton, 
and an advanced party of the enemy. Neither of these describe 
the engagement, or mention the loDg retreat of our force and 
the pursuit by the enemy, but pass immediately to the events 
of the main battle and its triumphs, several hours later in the 
day. Colonel Reed, who was present says : Our men behaved 
well, and stood and returned the fire till overpoirered by numbi rs 
they were obliged to retreat (Jay, 47-48), and were pursued. 
Reed went over to the General to get some support for the brave 
fellows who laid behaved so well. — Jay, 48. By that time 
Knowlton had also come in and asked for a reinforcement. 
Before the reinforcement could be arranged the pursuing 
enemy appeared and blew the hunter's horn of triumph, which 
Reed heard with deep mortification. The party of the enemy 
in sight must have been 100, as the men who " came in " in- 
formed General Washington that the body of the enemy 
amounting to 300 kept themselves concealed. — Jay, 41. 

This could have happened but at one place — near the head- 
quarters of Washington and his military family, including 
Colonel Reed the Adjutant-General, and near the camp of 



41 

Knowlton, sometimes called General Washington's body 
guard, 1% miles above Manhattanville. 

The lines of an army are sometimes its pickets— its line of 
pickets. The word lines is often used in many other senses 
also— a line of march— a line of battle— a line of fortifications 
— a line of entrenchments— a line of encampment, 

On the night of the 15th, before the battle, the American 
picket, lines ran from the Point of Rocks north-westward 
to the Hudson River, along the face of the north side of 
the Manhattanville valley, and northeasterly along the south- 
eastern face of Harlem Heights to Harlem River. The 
British picket lines extended from Horen's Hook, on the East 
River, at 90th street, along the high grounds to and at Mc- 
Gowan's pass, to the end of the high grounds on the south 
side of the western end of the Harlem Plains at 125th street. 
So are the authorities, and it is quite apparent that the two 
sides of that valley could not fail to be made picket lines, 
because of the panoramic view they furnished of the neigh- 
boring localities. 

The field is the place where the battle is fought, some- 
times meaning the whole range of hostilities, and sometimes 
the mere place of a local encounter. 

Mifflin says : We lost about 100 killed and wounded, and beat 
the enemy from the field of battle.— Jay, 67. Mr. Ellery says : 
With equal numbers, we drove the enemy from the field. — Jay, 69. 
Gordon says : The parties behaved with great bravery, and 
being supplied with fresh troops, beat the enemy fairly from the 
field. — Jay, 70. 

General Greene says: The enemy nextday,at Harlem Heights, 
flushed with the sueeesess of 'the day before, approached and attacked 
our lines where I had the honor to command. The action, or 
rather skirmish, lasted about two hours. Our people beat the 
enemy off the ground. — Jay, 66. 

Major Fish says: Our advanced guard is posted a mile from 
our lines. Here it was (at the advanced guard, half a mile 
below Colonel Silliman) that our brave and heroic Marylanders, 
Virginians, &c, made a noble and resolute sta nd against the 
efforts of the enemy on Monday, the Wth, drove them back, pur- 
sued and forced them to retire. — Jay, 58. 



42 

General Greene again says: Th< enemy retreated, our people 
pursued them, and by the spirited conduct of General Put man 
and Colonel Reed, the. Adjutant-General, our people advanced 
upon the plain ground, without cover, and attacked and drove 
them back. — Jay, 55. The plain ground is the open ground — 
not woods. 

Colonel Silliman says: Our people drove the regulars back 
from post to post, about a mile and a half, and then left them. 

General Knox says: Our people pursued them nearly two 
miles. — Jay, 57. 

Captain Drown, of the Rangers, who succeeded to Knowl- 
ton's command (Humphrey, 142), says: We retreated, two miles 
and a half, and then made a stand and sent off for a reinforce- 
ment, which we soon received, and drove the dogs near three 
miles. — Jay, 60. 

This is extremely significant. The Rangers who w T ere 
attacked near the point of Matje David's Fly, retreated from 
there two miles to headquarters, received reinforcements, and 
then turned upon their pursuers and drove them near three 
miles. There is no mistaking the place and the manner of 
these movements. 

A Maryland correspondent says: Our brave Southern troops 
dislodged them from their posts. The enemy rallied and our 
mi it heat them the second time. They rallied again, our troops 
drove tliem the third time, and were rushing on them, but the 
enemy had' got on an eminence, and our troops were ordered to 
retreat. — Jay, 61. 

The proof is overwhelming that after the engagement at 
daybreak between Knowlton and Leslie, wherever the battle 
was fought, we were attacked on our own ground, which we 
maintained, and drove the enemy back entirely off from it. 
That we drove them from the place where the Rangers, after 
their retreat, were reinforced, near three miles. — Jay, 60. 

It only remains to state to what place we drove them. 
Colonel Smallwood and Captain Beatty, of the Maryland 
Regulars, bravest of the. brave that day, fix that beyond all 
dispute. Colonel Smallwood says: We drove them back Co their 
li/us. — Jay, 63. 

Captain Bpatty says : The attack was very sharp on both 



43 

aides for an hour and a. half, and then the enemy retreated one 
mile and <t half to their lines. — Jay, 63. These lines — their 
picket lines — as before stated, ran along the high ground on 
the heights from McGowan's pass to the end of the high 
grounds on the side of the western end of the Harlem Plains 
at 125th street, and so along the heights overlooking Manhat- 
tan valley towards the Hudson River. Their lines of encamp- 
ment were all along between their pickets and Howe's head- 
quarters. The British army lies encamped about two miles below 
us. — Jay, 43. Their lines of entrenchments, probably only 
begun on the 18th, were afterwards made very strong from 
McGowan's pass to the Hudson River, and held by Earl Percy 
with two brigades of English and one of Hessians, to cover New 
York (Upcott) till the attacks on Fort Washington, one of 
which was led by Percy. — Sauthier's map. General Clinton 
also says: Our people at length worsted them a third time, caused 
them to fall back into an orchard (about 115th street, laid down 
on the maps of the period), and from thence across a hollow and 
up another hill not far distant from their own lines. — Jay, 52. 

It is nowhere said or even intimated, that our ti - oops pur- 
sued the retreating enemy back to their lines, but quite the 
contrary. When the enemy broke and ran back to their lines, 
they went, I suppose, by the Kingsbridge road, leaving the 
heights at Breakneck hill. We were not allowed to continue 
the pursuit, but Colonel Tilghman and Colonel Reed, by 
Washington's orders, called them promptly back to their own 
lines. They pursued the enemy as fur as inn* thought proper. — 
Jay, 49. His Excellency sent and ordered a timely retreat to our 
atl ra need post. — Jay, 50. Washington says : Finding it pru- 
dent to tcitlhdraw them. — Jay, 45. There is no proof or allega- 
tion in all this evidence, that a shot was fired by the Americans 
after the British finally broke and ran at the buckwheat field, 
and left the field of actual conflict. 

There was no extended plan of battle on either side. It was 
a battle in pieces— fighting in a variety of places. They 
fought in scouts and squads, in battalions and brigades. 
They went in where there was an opening, and they fought 
till they were reinforced, and then fought on till they drove 
the enemy. They fought in the woods and in the plain 



44 

ground, in Ihe fields, in the road, behind the bushes and the 
fences, and they clambered up and over the rocks to get at the 
enemy. On these proofs, taken together, the evidence is over- 
whelming that Harlem Heights, between 158th street and 
Manhattanville, west of the Kingsbridge road, was ablaze 
with the fire of battle from 11 A. M. to 3 P. M. That was 
the field of battle. The sharp crack of ten companies of 
rifles, and the rattle of musketry from some six thousand 
muskets, with the solemn emphasis from two American field 
pieces and several British field pieces, resounded on that field 
for four hours of the bravest and most obstinate contest. Up 
to about 1 o'clock the flank attack and its sharp fighting was 
in the woods between 145th and 158th streets. Lieutenant 
Heinrichs, of Donop's corps of Yagers, which had gone to 
rescue Leslie in his unfortunate pursuit of the l'etreating 
Knowlton, Avas wounded at 1 o"clock and left the field. 
Donop, usually so modest, says in his report to General Von- 
Heister : But for my Yager*, two regiments of Highlanders and 
British infantry, would /tare all, perhaps, been captured, for they 
were attacked by a force four times their n umber. — Jay, 82. Baur- 
meister says : If the grenadiers, and especially the Hessian 
Yagers, hud not arrived in time to help them, no one of these 
brave light infantry would hare escaped. They lost 70 dead and 
200 wounded. — Jay, 85. At that time the enemy was forced out 
of cover into the plain ground, a clea r f eld about 200 paces south- 
east, out of the woods which covered them, into the fields and 
roads, plain open ground. — Jay, 41, 45, 58, when the second 
time our people pursued them 400 paces, where both parties 
received considerable reinforcements, and the battle was con- 
tinued with unabated spirit for two hours, most of the time 
iu a buckwheat field, about 140th to 145th street, where the 
forces under Greene and those under Putnam and Reed, kept 
up the fight till the ammunition of the enemy was entirely 
exhausted. No Yager had any ammunition left, all the High- 
land: rs had fired their last shot, says Baurmeister. — Jay, 83. Our 
men baring silenced their fire in a great measure, says Washing- 
ton.— Jay, 41. The enemy then broke and ran in full retreat 
by the Kingsbridge Road at Breakneck Hill, 148th to 142d 
streets, till they crossed the Mahattanville pass to near their 



45 

lines on an eminence, and there, without ammunition, they 
pretended to make another stand, to induce the Americans to 
follow them till they should be met by a large fresh British 
force, which should swoop up the Americans or drive them 
off the Island. General Clinton says: A large body of the enemy 
being at tins time discovered to be in motion, and ire finding 
the ground ratlier disadvantageous and a retreat likewise rather 
insecure, u-ithnut bringing on, a general action, (which ice did not 
think prudent to risk.) Adjutant-General Reed, by orders of 
General Washington, sent by Colonel Tilghman, called in the 
troops. "Tliey gave a hurrah and left the field in good 
order. "—(Tilghman). Thus and there where the enemy made 
their last stand, whither the Americans had driven them, but 
were not allowed to pursue them, ended this battle, wholly 
fought on Harlem Heights, and thereafter the enemy ceased to 
be troublesome. No wonder that this first victory of the war, 
and such a victory, inspirited our troops prodigiously, and that 
they thought of nothing but conquest. It was a cheering pre- 
cursor of the second victory, that at Trenton a few weeks 
later. 



APPENDIX 



NOTES. 

Note 1. 

"where the action first began." — Page 30. 

The various writers whose statements are quoted as evidence 
use the words skirmish, attack, action, engagement, battle, so 
variously that it is not easy to know in some cases to which 
particular encounter they refer, without a study of the circum- 
stances in which they are used. Thus, when General George 
Clinton speaks of the place where " the action first began," 
he evidently refers to the heavy attack on the advanced guard 
mentioned by Colonel Silliman and General Greene; and when 
the author of the pen and ink sketch uses the phrase " where 
the action began," he as plainly refers to the flank attack in 
which Knowlton and Leitch fell, a little below the 10 Mile 
Stone. 

The hostilities of the day consist of three principal parts 
which together extended from " near the point of Matje 
David's Fly — say somewhere between 115th and 120th streets 
on the left of the British vanguard at Vandewater's Heights, 
as stated by me and shown on Captain Hall's map, about a mile 
and a quarter above Howe's headquarters, to the flank attack 
below Washington's headquarters, 155th to 158th streets and 
11th avenue. The first part embraced only the skirmish 
between Knowlton and Leslie. The second part was the heavy 
attack, a little before noon, between 131st and 140th streets. 
on Greene's advanced guard. The third was the bloody battle 
which commenced by the flank attack at about 155th street, 
and ended where the British broke and ran in full retreat — 
say 145th to 148th streets. Five sharp encounters, in all of 
which, except the first, the Americans were victorious. 



47 

Extract of a letter from an officer (British) at New York, 
dated September 2M, 1776— five days after the battle. 

The rebels are retreated to works very strong by nature as 
well as art, about ten miles from New York. There they have 
remained since the 15th. Their works extend to the termina- 
tion of the Island of New York, at about 15 miles distant from 
the town, and on those heights they say they are resolved to 
make their stand. * * * * * I am pretty confident our 
General will not attack them in their advantageous situation 
with musketry. He seems determined to make no improper 
sacrifices. We have a noble train of artillery. 

About four days since, the light infantry, who are the van of 
our army, pressed too gallantly upon a very superior body of 
the rebels, and drove them off but with the loss of 125 killed 
and wounded. 

Upcott Collections, N. Y. Hist. Society. 



MILITARY RELICS ON THE BATTLE FIELDS. 

The existence of such relics is not without force as evidence 
of the places of actual conflict, and in this regard the letters 
of Hon. James A. Deering, who formerly represented this 
district in the State Legislature, aud Hon. Seth C. Hawley, 
for many years past the Chief Clerk in the Police Depart- 
ment, and of Colonel Long, the Superintendent of the Harlem 
Gas Company, and of Rev. Dr. Stoddard, Presbyterian pastor 
of Carmansvllle, are interesting as showing that military 
relics of the battlefield have been found on Harlem Heights 
at the places where it seems to me so clear, on the evidence, 
that the fighting actually took place, viz. : the attack on 
General Greene's Advance Guard, in the vicinity of 132d 
street and 10th and 11th avenues, and the flank attack at about 
155th street, and, so far as now appears, have been found 
nowhere else, and the bones of a horse, perhaps General 
Reed's horse, which was disabled under him in the battle, at 
about the same place. 



48 

[Letter of Mr. Deering.] 

New York, Nov. 10, 1879. 
Hon. E. C. Benedict, Esq.: 

Dear Sir.— In the year 1862, when a boy, I found several 
cannon balls and an old bayonet, between 131st and 132d 
streets, between 10th and 11th avenues. I kept them for sev- 
eral years, using and losing them, as boys usually do. 

Very truly yours, 

JAMES A. DEERING. 



[Letter of Mr. Hawley.] 

Central Department of Police, ) 

No. 300 Mulberry Street, r 

New York, Dec, 16th, 1879. ' 

Dear Sir. — Concerning " Military Relics of the Revolu- 
tion," I beg leave to state : In the Summer of 1879 a party of 
workmen laying gas mains, exhumed a cannon ball and the 
very ancient bones of a horse. The strata of earth at the 
excavation showed that the horse and cannon ball were on 
the original surface of the ground, not buried, and had been 
sul (sequently covered by grading up the ground in recent years. 

The exact place was a few feet from the corner of the curb 
stones on the north easterly corner of 155th street and the 
grand boulevard, formerly the Eleventh avenue, and near the 
entrance of my house. It was about 100 feet from a famous 
spring, known and used in Revolutionary times, since known 
as the Audubon spring, which, in former times, supplied the 
neighborhood with very tine water. 

The cannon ball was, by the foreman of the gang of men, 
as he informed me, presented to his employer, Colonel Long, 
of Harlem, the President of the Harlem Gas Light Company, 
who will, no doubt, take pleasure in exhibiting it to you. 

The bones were in an advanced state of decay, and only the 



49 

lower jaw was in a condition to be handled ; those I put in 
my barn. They may have disappeared. 

I need only add that the cannon ball and the bones were in 
such juxtaposition as to favor the idea that the cannon ball 
killed the horse, and was present when, more than a century 
since, carrion crows picked the horse's bones. 

Very respectfully yours, 

S. C. HAWLEY. 
Honorable E. C. Benedict, 

No. 64 Wall street, N. Y. 



[Letter of Colonel Long.] 

Harlem, Dec. 24, 1879. 
Mr. E. C. Benedict: 

Dear Sir. — Twelve or fourteen years ago my men found a 
cannon ball in digging a trench for laying gas pipes on 155th 
street, about 100 feet west of Tenth avenue. The ball was 
the only relic which I noticed. I kept it for some years, but 
think it is now lost. 

In the Summer of this year (1879), while digging for laying 
gas pipes under my direction, the laborers exhumed the bones 
of a horse and a cannon ball, in such relative position that 
there could be no doubt that the ball killed the horse. There 
was also found at the same place a bridle bit and a part of an 
iron stirrup, partly eaten away by rust. This ball was put 
into my wagon and taken to the office of the company, where 
it has been ever since till to-day, when I leave it at your office, 
presented to you. There was found in the same trench a case 
knife, the handle eaten away by decay. The earth around 
these remains was dark by decayed animal matter. The bones 
were much decayed. 

The spot was about 100 feet north of the north line of 
Trinity Cemetery, and at the corner of Eleventh avenue and 
155th street, about 125 feet from the northeasterly corner of 



50 

155th street and Eleventh avenue, and about 800 feet west of 
where the first ball was found. 

I have been superintendent of the company from the time 
of its formation, twenty-three years ago, and have superin- 
tended the laying' of all its one hundred and twenty odd miles 
of pipes. The district of the company extends from 79th 
sheet north to the end of the island, and from river to river, 
It is sparsely settled in the upper part. I have no recollection 
of rinding any military relics at any other place. 

JACOB M. LONG. 



[Letter of Dr. Stoddard. ] 

The New York Observer, ) 

Office, 37 Park Row, > 

New York, June IStJi, 1880. ) 

Honorable E. C. Benedict : 

Dear Sir, — In digging the foundations for my house on 

155th street, west of Tenth avenue about two hundred feet. 

ten years ago, a number of revolutionary relics, such as 

buckles, buttons and bullets were thrown out ; and at a public 

meeting held in the church on the corner of that street some 

years since, one of the speakers stated that a direct ancestor of 

his fell by a British shot, on or near the place where the church 

now stands. 

Very respectfully yours, 

CHAS. A. STODDARD. 



[Letter of Humphrey Jones.] 

Address on the envelope " Erastus C. Benedict, Esq., N. Y. 
University, N. Y. City." Postmark, February 8, 1878, 
Toledo, 6. 

Dear Sir, Historical Society. — Reading in the Herald, of 
reminiscences of the battle of Harlem Heights— perhaps I can 



51 

give you some insight as to where it was. My father was an 
old soldier at that time, and fought with Lafayette at Brandy- 
wine, and I was with my father to see the general at the old 
hotel near Trinity Church, and sat on his knee when he was 
in New York on his last visit. My father at one time lived 
at Manhattan ville, and he has shown me the battle-ground. 
It commenced on the hill near the asylum, and the Americans 
drove the British up the road and down the hill, often called 
by the name of Breakneck Hill. The old gentleman used to 
say that was the reason they called it Breakneck Hill. 
Yours very respectfully, 

HUMPHREY JONES, 
Toledo, O. Born N. Y., May 3, 1812, 

No. 11 Roosevelt street. 

Lived in Manhattanville the time of the yellow fever, I 
think 1821 or 1822. 

Father was known as Tom Jones, fighting quaker of La- 
fayette's army. 
Please to excuse me as I am no letter writer, only a farmer. 

Respectfully, 

H. J. 

In the copy I have corrected the spelling. It is a brief and 
imperfect account, but shows quite clearly that according to 
the fighting cmaker of 177fi, hostilities commenced on the left 
of the British advance guard about 11th avenue and 120th 
street (now the asylum) the Americans passing under cover of 
the woods by way of Vanderwater Heights, (Jay, 77) from 
near the point of Matje David's Fly, and ended in the precipi- 
tate retreat of the British down the precipitous Breakneck 
Hill. 

Mr. Stevens says: Our best local authority, Colonel Thomas 
F. Devoe, sets at rest this story of Mr. Jones, and shows that 
the name Breakneck Hill originated, not in this retreat of the 
British, but in an accident to the Northern Coach. Colonel 
Devoe's statement on this subject is found in the Magazine of 
American History, for May of this year, page 386, in whic 



52 

lie gives an extract from the N. Y. Journal, June 20, 1795, stat- 
ing that as the Harlem Stage was coming clown Harlem Hills, 
the horses took flight, and two men were killed in attempting to 
get out. Not a word about the Northern Coach or Breakneck 
Hill. It was the Harlem Stage coming down Harlem Hills 
which the facile pen of Mr. Stevens has converted into the 
Northern Coach, which would, of course, be coming down the 
Kingsbridge Road, the grand northern route of public convey- 
ance while the Harlem Stage plied between New York and 
Harlem on the great eastern route. To this Colonel Devoe adds 
the gossiping story of a Mr. McGowan living on the cast side 
of the town, that ever since that accident this hill has borne 
the name of Breakneck Hill. 

Now, this statement was made to Mr. Devoe only two years 
ago, while Mr. Jones' information was received from his 
father, the fighting quaker of Lafayette's army, in 1822, fifty- 
six years before that of Mr. McGowan, and both Mr. Stevens 
and Mr. McGowan are set at rest by an old deed, dated May 4, 
1786 (Lib. 52. page 330), which makes mention of Breakneck 
Hill as an apparently well known land mark at that time, nine 
years before the accident on the Harlem Stage. Mr, Stevens 
probably had not seen this ancient deed, and naturally enough 
adopted Mr. McGowan's hearsay statement in his desire to 
bolster up his entirely inadmissible account of this battle. 

Note II.— Page 35 and 3G. 
It has been supposed that after Knowlton fell, Colonel Reed 
mounted him on his (Reed's) horse and took him from the 
field. This is evidently a misapprehension. At first look 
Reed seems to say so. It is, however, Leitch of whom Reed 
is speaking, and whom he brought off. The sentence, Knowl- 
ton also fell mortally wounded, is a parenthetic sentence. Knowl- 
ton was past being mounted on a horse when gasping in tlie 
agonies of death. Captain Brown says: I then ordered two men 
to carry him off. — Jay, 60. 

Note III.— Page 36. 
Knowlton, who fell on the 16th, was buried on the 17th, 
with military honors. — Heath, 61. Major Thomas Henley, who 



53 

fell in the unfortunate attempt on Montressor's Island on the 
morning of the 23d, was buried by his side on the 24th, with 
military honors.— Heath, 60. Major Leitch lingered till Octo- 
ber 1st, when, as is said, he was buried there also. There 
does not seem to be any reasonable ground for doubt that these 
three brave officers lie side by side near the north margin of 
Trinity Cemetery. 

Note IV.— preface Page VI. 

CAPTAIN OLIVER BROWN. 

I copy the following epitaph from the Magazine of Ameri- 
can History, Vol. 3, page 376. 

Captain Oliver Brown, of the artillery of the Massachusetts 
line, Revolutionary war, bom in Lexington, Mass., 1752. He 
stood in front of the first cannon fired by the British on the Ameri- 
cans in the affray at Lexington, witnessed the tea party, Boston 
Harbor, was at the Battle of Bunker Hill, commissioned by Con- 
gress, nth January, 1776. Commanded the party that bore off 
the leaden statue of King George from the Battery of Wew York, 
and made into bullets for the American army. Bore a conspicu- 
ous part in command of artillery at the battles of Harlem Heights, 
White Plains, Princeton, Trenton, Brandywine, Germantown 
and Monmouth. 

After serving his country he enlisted in the armies of the Son 
of God, and surrendered to the last enemy on the 17th of Febru- 
ary, 1846, in full assurance of a never ending peace. 

This is the officer of our army whom Mr. Stevens seeks to 
discredit with the unfounded and unworthy slur that he was 
only the author of an anonymous letter, which he was not. 

As a Captain of artillery in the Massachusetts regulars he, 
of course, had his cannon at his camp, on Morris Heights, 
from whence a couple of field pieces were brought to bear on the 
enemy, which fairly put them to flight, with two discharges only. 
George Clinton. — Jay, 54. 

The British had a noble train of artillery. When they moved 
up the road and down the hill, as the letter of Mr. Jones says, 
nothing would be easier than to take cannon with them along 
the main road to the Point of Rocks, and then by the new 



54 

road, the continuation of the Harlem Lane, up to 131st and 133d 
street and lltli avenue, to the attack on Green's advanced 
guard, or they might as easily go by the road along the brow 
of Vanderwater's Heights, distinctly laid down on the true 
Sauthier Map, as the route of the Hessian Column substan- 
tially along 11th avenue across the Manhattanville Hollow- 
way to 133d street. This ought to relieve the doubts of Mr. 
Stevens about the artillery and how it got into the fight. 
That it was in the fight effectively, is free from doubt. 
Gen >ral Cliuton and Colonel Sillitnan so state specifically, and 
Sir Wm. Howe in general orders desires to return thanks to the 
battalion (of infantry) and the officers and men of tlie artillery; 
and the finding the relics by Mr. Deering at this place, and 
by Colonel Long at 155th street, show the presence of both 
those arms of the service in these two principal attacks. I 
am also informed by Mr. Hawley, whose letter is given in 
note I, and who has long resided at Carmansville; that up to 
the last year, 1879, the course and the remains of an old revo- 
lutionary road were plainly visible, leaving the Kingsbridge 
Road at about 104th street, and by a crooked and irregular 
course descending westward ly to the river at about the Audu- 
bon Park — a road which might well be used by Knowltou and 
the Rangers when they set out before day. 

I have copied the epitaph of Captain Brown on page 53, to 
vindicate the character of that gallant officer, and also as ad- 
ditional evidence that this battle was known historically as the 
battle of Harlem Heights all along through the years of our 
revolutionary history. To it may be added that Paulding, one 
of the captors of Andre, is said to have been made a prisoner 
at the battle of Harlem Heights. 

The Magazine of American History for August, 1880, page 
142, furnishes another piece of evidence as to the name and 
place of the battle. It says: 

In the Newark news, published in the Pennsylvania Evening 
Post for October, 1776, is an account of the skirmish on Harh m 
Heights on the 16t7i, September. When we turn to the Pennsyl- 
vania Evening Post we find the following: 

We hear that the English troops attacked part of our army near 



55 

the Blue Ball last Monday about 4 o'clock in the afternoon; tJiat 
the enemy was twice repulsed, and beat back near two miles. This 
is neither very specific nor very certain. It is hearsay. It is, 
however, evidence that the battle was on the upper part of 
Harlem Heights. The Blue Ball or Blue Bell was between 
Morris Heights and Fort Washington. 

And this is still further evidence: 

Louis McLaren, in an oration delivered before the artillery of 
Wilmington, Bel., July 5, 1813, thus alludes to the heroic battles 
of the war of Independence: The exploits of our heroes are almost 
as numerous as the hills of our country, and eclipse all theme- 
turns of Greece and Rome; cast your eyes over the extent of our 
territory and proudly dwell on the splendor of your national feats, 
Bunker Hilt and the Heights of Harlem, Saratoga and Trenton, 
Princeton and Monmouth, Stony Point and Yorktoicn are the 
proud monuments of your heroes' deeds, and your country's glory, 
— Magazine of Am. History for June, 1880, p. 457. 

In his Battles of the United States by sea and land, Mr. Daw- 
son called this battle the Battle of Harlem Plains. A few years 
later he corrected the error in his Battle of Harlem Heights, a 
paper read before this Society and published under that title. 
Other historians have also been glad, on new evidence, to cor 
rect their mistakes and set themselves right, rather than to 
leave it to others to do it for them. I shall not omit to say, on 
this opportunity, that Mrs. Lamb has shown the true spirit of 
the impartial historian in this matter. Assuming, originally 
from Mr. Stevens, that his view of this battle was the correct 
one, she wrote a paper presenting this passage of American 
history under that aspect, and with the name Harlem Plains, 
which was published with illustrations, and was extensively 
circulated. It was that paper which led to the conversation 
with her mentioned in my preface at the foot of page IV. 
When subsequent re-examination of the question on contem 
poraneous original evidence, some of which she sought with 
labor and expense in a neighboring State, as she has recently 
informed me, convinced her that she had been in error; she 
without any pride of opinion, adopted the truth of the newly 
discovered evidence, and incorporated it into her history as 



56 

the Battle of Harlem Heights, without any allusion to the mis- 
taken accounts of herself or of others. It is, perhaps, not 
surprising that Mr. Stevens has looked with disfavor on her 
change of opinion. 

Mr. Stevens says that Mrs. Lamb's statement that at evening 
the armies occupied the same relative position as before the battle, 
their pickets icithin speaking distance of each other, across the 
Manhattanville valley, where they remained for upward of three 
weeks, is also erroneous ! Let us see : 

General George Clinton says: Since the above affair noticing 
material has happened. The enemy keep close to their lines. 
Our advanced parties continue at their former station; we are 
daily throwing up works to prevent the enemy advancing. — Jay, 
52-3. Graydon says: I was on guard at the Pointof Rocks. This 
was our most advanced picket towards Neto York, and only sepa- 
rated from that of the enemy by a valley of a few hundred yards 
over. — Jay, 75. Our advanced sentries are icithin 300 yards of 
each other. — General McDougaM. 

Colonel Reed says: I assisted in calling off our troops when 
they had pursued the enemy as far as was thought proper. — Jay, 
49. 

These troops charged the enemy with great intrepidity and drove 
them from the wood into the plain, and were pushing them from 
thence, having silenced their fire in a great measure, when 1 
judged it prudent to order a retreat, fearing the enemy, as I have 
since found was really the case, were sending a large body to sup- 
port their party. Washington to President of Congress (Jay, 
41), and to N. Y. Convention. — Jay, 45. 

Our troops still pressed on and drove the enemy about a mile 
and a half, till the General ordered them to give over the pursuit, 
fearing the whole of the enemy's army would advance upon them. 
They retreated in very good order. — Reed, Jay, 4S. 

A large column of the enemy's army being at that time discov- 
ered to be in motion * * * our party was ordered in. — Clin- 
ton, Jay, 52. We retired to our first ground. — Clinton, Jay, 54. 
His Excellency sent out and ordered a timely retreat to our ad- 
vanced post , for he discovered, or concluded, the enemy icould send 



57 

a large reinforcement. — Green, Jay, 56. We were ordered to re- 
treat. — Jay, 59 and CI. 

The General fearing (as we afterwards found) that a large body 
was coming tip to support them, sent me over to bring our men off. 
They gave a hurrah, and left the field in good order. — Tilghman. 

And in addition to these brigades of Earl Percy there were 
close at hand the 8,000 or 10,000 fresh British regulars, whose 
approach over the hill caused Washington to call in our vic- 
torious troops. They lay there till about the 29th October, 
when General Green, in a letter from Fort Lee, informs 
General Washington that the British troops which advanced upon 
Harlem Plains, and on the hill where the Monday action was, 
have drawn within their lines again. — Force. 

Let those who can, believe with Mr. Stevens, that Washing- 
ton did not call in his troops, as he and all these officers assert 
that he did, but left them exposed below his farthest pickets, 
without a trench or a breastwork, or lines of fortifications to 
protect them ! and that, up to the surrender of Fort Washing- 
ton, the American army held all the ground between Mc- 
Gowan's Pass and the Point of Rocks, living in barracks 
under the guns of the noble train of British artillery, and 
under the guns of the strong British fortifications from that 
Pass to the river, thrown up the night after the battle 
(Jay, 55), — held and manned by Lieutenant-General Earl Percy 
and his English and German brigades, who did not move till 
the lGth November. 

I must here advert to some singular slips of the pen, if such 
they be. 

Mr. Jay says , page 22 : Passing over the ridge which we have 
described as the Bloomingdale Heights, then known as Vande- 
water's Heights {they are so described in Sir William Howe's dis- 
patch). 

Instead of describing the Bloomingdale Heights as the Van- 
dewater Heights, Sir William Howe, whose army lay on 
Bloomingdale Heights, says : On the l&h, in the morning, a 
large party of the enemy having passed under cover of the woods 
near to the advanced posts of the army, by the way of Vande- 
water's Heights. This surely is not describing Bloomingdale 
Heights as Vandewater's Heights, but quite the reverse. The 



58 

Hessian account, Jay, 81. — Stewart, Jay, 78. — Stedman, Jay, 
80, — all concur in describing Vandewater's Heights as in or 
near the woods on the left of Bloomingdale Heights — left wing — 
left flank of the British army. It ought to be remarked also, 
here, that while Knowlton's approach was incontestably on 
the left wing or flank of the British advanced post, all these 
various and inconsistent averments place the approach on the 
British right. 

Another and more important, and quite as inexcusable error 
is found in the next succeeding paragraph, page 23, where it 
is stated, and said to be on the authority of General Reed's ex- 
press statement, that the American advanced guard was pick- 
eted on the plain below the Point of Rocks, before the morn- 
ing skirmish of Knowlton. If true, it would be a most im- 
portant piece of testimony; but, in fact, Colonel Reed says no 
such thing. 

I bring together Mr. Jay's statement and Colonel Reed's, 
for comparison. 

Mr. Jay says: Adjutant- General Joseph Reed, as he himself 
informed lis, was sent to the front to learn the truth, 
and went down to the most advanced guard picketed on 
the plain below the Point of Rocks. He here fell in with 
the party of Knowlton, who had been driven from the hill, 
and tohile Reed was talking to the officer in command, the enemy 
sJioiced themselves and opened fire at a distance of fifty yards. 
The Americans behaved well; stood and returned the fire till, over- 
powered by numbers {ten to one is Reed's estimate), they retreated, 
the enemy advancing with such rapidity that they were in posses- 
sion Of THE HOUSE IN WHICH REED CONVERSED WITH THE 

officer, five minutes after he left it. 

Colonel Reed says: An account came that the enemy were ad- 
vancing upon us in three large columns. We have so many false 
reports that I desired the General to permit me to go and discover 
wJiat truth there was in the account. — Jay, 47. / accordingly 
went down to our most advanced guard and fell in with the above 
party. — Jay, 49. While 1 was talking with the officer, the enemy 
advanced and the firing began at about 50 yards distance; as they 
were ten to one against our party, we immediately retreated. — 
Jay, 49. The enemy advanced upon us very fast. I had not 



59 

quitted a house five minutes before they were in possession of it. — 
Jay, 48. 

Not one word about being picketed on the plains below the 
Point of Rocks. All the words in small capitals have been 
interpolated into Reed's statement more than 100 years after it 
was written by Reed in a letter to his wife. Mr. Jay's oration 
was printed under the direction of Mr. Stevens, and I do not 
attribute these interpolations to Mr. Jay. 



Note V. 

Colonel Humphrey gives the following account of the flank 
attack: 

Lieutenant Colonel Knowlton's Rangers (a fine selection from 
the Eastern regiments), who had been skirmishing with an ad- 
vanced party, came in and informed the General that a body of 
British were under cover of a small eminence at no considerable 
distance. His Excellency, willing to raise our men from their de- 
jection by the splendor of some little success, ordered Lieu tenant- 
Colonel Knowlton with his rangers, and Major Leitch with three 
companies of Weedon's regiment of Virginians, to gain their rear 
while appearances should be made of an attack in front ; as soon 
as the enemy saw the party sent to decoy them, they ran precipi- 
tately down the hill, took possession of some fences and bushes and 
commenced a brisk firing at long shot. Unfortunately, Knowl- 
ton and Leitch made their onset rather in flank than in rear. 
The enemy charged their front, and the skirmish at once became 
close and warm. Major Leitch received three balls through his 
side, and icas borne from the field, and Colonel Knowlton icas 
mortally wounded immediately after. — Life of Putnam, 140. 

General Washington thus describes the same flank attack. 

Some of the enemy's light troops had advanced to the extremity 
of the high ground opposite to our present encampment * * 
Colonel Knowlton and Major Leitch were detached with parties of 
riflemen and rangers to get in their rear, while a disposition was 
made to attack them in front. By some unhappy mistake the fire 
was commenced from that quarter rather on their flank than in 
their rear. 



60 

Washington to Patrick Henry, dated Headquarters, Heights 
of Harlem, October 5th, 1776, and his letter to the President 
of Congress, September 1 8th, also from headquarters, — Jay, 41 ; 
and Chief Justice Marshall gives the same account, which he 
received from the Virginia officers commanding the companies 
that were engaged. — Jay, 72. 

The earliest map of the field is the pen and ink sketch to 
which reference has been made, of which a copy is given. — Jay, 
68. That sketch represents that action to have begun near the 
Hudson river, between Washington's Headquarters and the 
high ground on the river bank, directly opposite to an en- 
campment, about one-third of a mile from headquarters south- 
westerly. Mr. Stevens says this sketch is not such a drawing 
as an engineer like Clinton would send to a public body. But 
General Clinton was not an engineer. The sketch is indeed 
rude, but perhaps all the more significant and important, because 
it was evidently a fresh off-hand draught made with no other 
purpose than to show, in a prominent and striking manner, the 
locality and course of the battle of the day and afternoon after 
the flank attack. I shall only put a double mark of wonder 
after the assertion of Mr. S., that this sketch represents Wash- 
ington as standing during the action at the Point of Rocks !! 
when in fact it places him on Morris Heights, a little below 
the 10th mile stone, and nearly two miles north of the latitude 
of Harlem village and the Point of Rocks. It shows the 
flank attack and the second attack, 150 yards further down, 
and the actual buckwheat field still further down, in which 
an action ensued for \% hour, when the enemy fled, or in the 
blunter language of Captain Gooch, broke and ran, and took 
momentary refuge in an orchard below the Point of Rocks, 
whence, hurry-scurry, they made for their camps, just as our 
troops were called in . 



The sudden and lamented death of my uncle, the author of 
the foregoing pages, left this appendix incomplete. He visited 
the rooms of the Historical Society, in reference to it, on the 
day before the fatal attack of the disease which ended his 
life. After his death a few memoranda were found, which he 



61 

had apparently made in the preparation of Note V, and which 
have been put in print as they were left. Their incomplete- 
ness is the more to be regretted, because the author, as will be 
seen by the close of his preface, invited special attention to this 
Note V. 

I venture to add one single suggestion of my own to what 
he has written. 

The affair of September 16th, 1776, began with an engage- 
ment about ten in the morning, between a small party of 
Americans, and a larger party of British troops. It ended 
about three o'clock in the afternoon, with the withdrawal of 
the American forces, each party occupying substantially the 
same ground as before. 

Between ten and three, the British troops having advanced 
about a mile and a half, were driven back by the Americans 
over two miles. 

Now it is entirely in accord with human nature that each 
party should bring into prominence that part of the day in 
which it was successful. The British would speak of the first 
skirmish and the final withdrawal, while to the Americans the 
main feature of the day would be, that they drove back the 
British, after their advance. 

And so we find both Lord Howe and Captain Hall mention- 
ing the retiring of the Americans (obliged them to retire, says 
Howe ; The latter obliged to retire, says Hall), as the main 
feature of the day ; while Washington and Clinton and Silli- 
man, and in fact all the American authorities dwell on the 
fact that the British were driven back. (These troops charged 
the enemy with great intrepidity, and drove them from the wood 
into the plain, and were pushing them from thence.— Washing- 
ton. A very brisk action commenced, which continued for near 
two hours, in which time we drove the enemy. — Clinton. About 
two hmirs—in which time our people drove the regulars back from 
post to post about a mile and a half. — Silliman. Drove them back, 
-pursued and forced them to retire.— Fish. Drove the dogs near 
three miles. — Brown.) 

It is equally in accord with human experience, that each 
party, bringing into prominence its own success, should con- 
nect with it the name of the place where that success was 



62 

achieved. It was therefore to be expected that Lord 
Howe and Captain Hall, who mention the British success, 
should mention Vandewater's Heights as the scene of it, which 
it was. 

It would be equally natural that every one on the American 
Bide, who spoke of the American success, should have given 
it the name of the Batlle of Haarlem Heights, if that was the 
place where the American success was achieved. And the fact 
that it did bear that name for three-quarters of a century is 
very strong evidence that Haarlem Heights was the place of 
the American success. 

Mr. Stevens brings forward Captain Hall's map as conclusive 
evidence against the views of the author of this pamphlet. 

For one, I fail to see how the fact that Captain Hall, a 
British officer, marks Vandewater's Heights on his map as the 
place of what he calls the Skirmish on Vandewater's Heights, 
between the Light Infantry, the 42d Eegiment, Hessian Company 
of Chasseurs, and the Rebels, the latter obliged to retire within 
their works with loss, is any authority on the question, whether 
the success, of which the Americans speak, was gained on 
Haarlem Heights or Haarlem Plains. 

ROB'T D. BENEDICT. 



